Sword Art Online: Second Reality
by Bznboy
Summary: I did not expect it to be a death game, no one did. So, when the rules changed, when revival was no longer possible, I knew I needed to get as many players out. But I'm just one player... For the next two years, my name will become Monica, the Mentor. Follows the canon story, rated T for swearing. I swear, I will make it out of this!
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own SAO or any of its characters except the one whose viewpoint is expressed here!**

**Edit: Corrected something**

* * *

"It's time for this episode of MMO Stream!"

I sat on the computer chair and listened to the broadcast displayed on the computer screen. Nervously checking the clock at the bottom left of the screen. I sighed in relief as it read 12:55 pm. It would be a few minutes before Sword Art Online; the first VRMMORPG (1) would start its servers, so I have time to kill.

"Earlier, we showed you a promotional video."

I shifted several of the cards displayed on the game 'Spider Solitaire' in boredom. That game was stuck in a loop anyway. The excitement kept growing and growing and I did nothing to calm myself down. Why would I? It is the first VRMMORPG and I was one of the ten thousand players who could get a head start of the game.

The clock showed 12:58pm and I moved onto the bed after shutting down the computer. Putting on the Nerve Gear, a black helmet shaped like those helmets in the F1 Grand Prix. I stared intently at the time displayed now on the top left hand corner of the screen.

I remembered applying for the beta, but did not get to be one of the lucky testers. The sorrow when I received the message. Now I got a copy of the famed game, my excitement would not go away.

12:59pm

I started the countdown to the start of Sword Art Online. A sudden chill when down my spine once I counted to fifty-nine. That usually meant that something bad is going to happen.

1:00pm

What would happen in that game would not affect me now, I chided myself.

"Link… Start!"

* * *

(1) VRMMORPG: Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.


	2. New World, New Rules

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters except for my OCs, whose username is going to be revealed.**

**Edit: Several changes to the story**

**Chapter 1: New World, New Troubles**

* * *

A Burst of colors flooded my view, blinding me for a few seconds. As I got my vision back, multiple spheres appears in front of me.

Touch… Ok

Sight…Ok

Hearing… Ok

Taste… Ok

Smell… Ok

These five icons moved themselves to the right side of my field of vision before turning green, disappearing after that.

Language: Japanese

Account: ******

Password: ***********

Log in Successful

Character Creation

No beta test data detected, moving to Character Creation

A character popped up in my view, appearance completely randomized. Adjusting several of the features of it, I confirmed my character appearance.

My character was a young, green-hair woman with sharp, sapphire eyes. With proportions fit for a model, she definitely would stick out of the crowd. A bright light filled my vision as I headed into the world of Sword Art Online. I could see my would-be avatar smiling at me.

Welcome to Sword Art Online

* * *

As the light dimmed down, I find myself standing on a white brick road. Four brown pillars flanked my sides. In front of me, a handsome brunette was looking down at his hands and legs. Clenching them, he muttered some words before running off. A beta-tester, I assume.

I tried opening my menu. It took several tries before it actually opened. First thing I did was scroll through the menu and looked at the icons.

The topmost button was Character Info with a silhouette icon. When opened, it shows a screen with a large body, with multiple points to show the equipment of my character. Currently I had the basic equipment of a beginner. That is, an old shirt, old skirt and old leather armor. It also reveals three smaller icons

The first icon, a chest with lots of weapons, was the Equipment menu. Pressing it would open up a sub menu for Equipment (Sword), Items (Armor) and Skills (Necklace). Each icon would show all items, equipments or skills equipped on your character.

The second icon, a bag is the Items menu. A list of all items on your character would be showed when pressed. When a piece of equipment is selected, a small menu opens up, showing 3 choices, Equip, Instant Equip and Delete. When an item is selected, you could select Make into item or Delete.

The third icon, a sword, is the Skill menu. This Sub-menu lists all skills when selected. I found out I have two empty skill boxes. Touching one of them, it revealed all the current skills I could add. Browsing through them, I decided to forgo the traditional One-Handed Sword to try out Katar skills, which meant that I had to add One-Handed Dagger. Immediately it shows the list of skills I could use such as Slant, Horizontal, Vertical and Uppercut. Each move portrays a starting position and how it would move.

The second button is the Friends/Guild menu with two silhouettes holding hands. It opens up a smaller menu with three different categories.

Party, which meant all things related to party making and managing.

Friends, revealing the list of people you have added as friends.

And Guild, which shows the name of guild, members and guild management.

Third Button is the Inbox with a chat box icon. It pretty much functions like an email…

Fourth Button is Journal, with a book icon. Selecting it reveals three options, Field Map, Dungeon Map and Quest. This whole thing was blank currently. I made a mental note to find a map later.

The fifth and last button was the Settings Menu, represented with the good, old-fashioned gears. Opening it would reveal three icons.

The first one was Options, with revealed many different settings like Pain Absorption and Brightness.

The second one was help, at first I thought it was like FAQs and pressed it. When it started calling for a GM, I quickly cancelled it.

The last one was… Empty…

I noticed was that there was no Log out button in the menu. Scrutinizing at the menu properly, I confirmed that logout button from the last icon. I was trapped in the game!

"Huh… Better inform the GM of it." I mentally noted to myself as I pressed the help button, calling a GM to assist me.

A few moments passed and yet no GM has appeared, maybe it was an event period? Sure there were some games which removed the Log out function for an event before. I quickly decided to find a weapon shop to buy a Katar. Yes, they do not give weapons to the players to allow players to choose their own weapon.

On the way to finding a weapon shop, I found a NPC selling away a map of the first floor. Purchasing it for 50 Col. I opened up the Field Map to find the weapon shop.

"Hey, are you a Beta-Tester?" a voice called out to me. I turned around to find a man with silver hair spiking upwards, defying gravity. Kakashi wannabe, I thought to myself.

"No, I just started today…"

"Whoa! Just started today? You're moving as if you know the place!"

"Well… I found a map of the first floor…"

"Hey, let's find a beta-tester to show us the ropes, okay?"

"O-okay… I guess…"

"Before we do that, let's get to know each other. Call me Enzo."

"Ah… My name's Monica."

"Monica? Is that your real name or username?"

"Don't be stupid, I won't reveal my real name in games."

"Oh…"

* * *

**Aincrad 1****st**** floor, outskirts of the starting city. 5.20pm**

"Yarrgh!" Enzo yelled as he crash on to the floor.

Both of us were hunting boars outside of town. Failing to get a beta-tester to help us, we decided to figure things out as we went. Currently, we were trying to use our sword skills and meet with little success. I had just managed to use my sword skills whenever I wanted

Enzo was using a One-Handed Spear with a shield and was poking Frenzy Boar with his spear, trying to activate his skill Thrust once again. Obviously the boar did not enjoy being poked and rammed him deep into the gut.

"I told you, you need to assume the starting position!"

"We can't use a starting position in real combat!" Enzo shot back. "How did you accomplish it anyway?"

I sighed and positioned myself with my right hand stretched to the right. The blade glowed blue as it registered the skill Horizontal. I started running towards the boar before letting the system take over.

"The basic input is only for the upper torso, so just position your body and let the system take over." I explained as I leapt out of the boar's charge, arms positioned for another skill Vertical. For some reason, the blade started glowing in a light blue tint instead.

"Uwah!" I yelped in surprise as my arms swung downwards before changing trajectory to the top right hand corner. The half-dead boar died in a glitter of blue crystals and I landed on my backside.

"Nice moves, Monica." Enzo sarcastically jabbered.

"Shut up…" I grumble in replied, scrambling to my feet.

A congratulations tab revealed what we had obtained during that battle. A small amount of Col and experience point was deposited into my character. Looking through my skill menus, I started studying the new skill I had obtained, Vertical Arc as Enzo added his newly acquired stat points to strength. The positioning of Vertical Arc is more to the left compared to Vertical, I mentally noted.

"If only you could work as hard as you study skills." Enzo smugly commented.

"Yeah, yeah, I can't. Speaking of which, what is your job?" I questioned. Enzo gave me a wide grin.

"I helped programmed this game, so you should respect me for contributing to this new generation of gaming!"

"Oh, hail Enzo, the arse-hole who helped make students more addicted to gaming." I lazily proclaimed.

"Mwuahahaha!" Enzo acted high and mighty before turning serious, "I'm logging off now. I'm feeling rather hungry… I'll log back in when I'm done eating."

"Don't choke yourself in your haste to continue." I cheekily replied, earning a smack on the head from Enzo. "Ah! Wait, the log out function may not be there till tomorrow." I called out to him, remembering what I saw earlier that day.

"What! What do you mean not there?" Enzo yelled in surprised.

"I think it might be an event for Sword Art Online. There were some games who also removed the log out function for certain events where you are to clear an objective to get out. The log out function would then be returned." I explained

"What happens if you get disconnected?" Enzo warily replied.

"You can't log back in until someone clears it. If everyone is logged out, then the GM would allocate a small amount of time to log back in. Usually it would end by the next day."

"Wait, so I cannot eat my dinner?! NO!" Enzo wailed in despair.

"Well… I guess we should train ourselves to beat whatever we have to face then." I suggested as I headed towards another group of boars. Suddenly I was enveloped in a blue light!

"Eh? What's going on?" Enzo cried as both of us teleported.

* * *

**Whew… another chapter done.**


	3. New Reality, New Consequences

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters. I only own Monica and Enzo.**

**Chapter 2: New reality, New Consequences**

* * *

**6th November, Aincrad 1st floor Starting City, 5.30pm**

When the blue light had dimmed down, I noticed that we were at the central plaza of the Starting City.

For the first few seconds, everyone was looking around. Comments such as 'What's happening?', 'Can we log out now?' and 'Can't they take care of it quickly?' were heard occasionally.

"Looks like the event would be starting soon." I commented to myself. A red head sporting a red bandana overheard me.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he came over.

"You noticed the game does not have a log out function, right? Most likely we will hear the objective of getting the log out function back" I told him. He nodded in understanding.

"Ah… Look up!" a voice sounded. Immediately, our eyes turned upwards, as did another ten thousand or so.

The top of the ceiling was checkered in red, when looked at closely, there was a pattern made up of two phrases crisscrossing each other: the words [Warning] and [System Announcement] written in red.

I noticed that next to the red head was the same black haired swordsman from earlier. He seemed rather tense from the blood-red liquid sweeping down on the crowd. It fell about a hundred meters before occupying an invisible container.

The liquid solidified to reveal an empty cloak, twenty meter tall.

"Is that a GM?"

"Why doesn't it have a face?"

Different voices could be heard throughout the plaza again, each of them laced with fear.

A pure with glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. Like the robe, it did not cover and sort of body. The left sleeve lift upwards as well. The robe then spread out in front of the ten thousand players in a welcoming posture, and a voice spoke.

『Players, I welcome you all to my world.』

Great… another person who wants to sound like a god. I proceeded to face-palm as the red head and black swordsman exchanged glances at each other.

『My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.』

That is when shock went through my body. Everyone here knows that name.

He is the one who raised Argus from a small company to one of the leading companies in the gaming industry, who created both Sword Art Online as well as the Nerve Gear.

Why is the creator of the game here? Is this not an event?

My avatar shook as I received the next part of the message.

『I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.』

My body froze on hearing that. If he had phrased it as part of Sword Art Online's event, I would have relaxed. But the way he had put it meant that this 'bug' was intentional.

『Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.』

This Castle? What does he- does he mean the hundredth floor of Aincrad?

『...also, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted...』

That sentence silenced the entire audience present. You probably could hear a pin drop if someone did drop one. The next words would bring pandemonium to the players.

『the signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.』

My mind processed this information with absolute disbelief. He had transformed this game into a death game.

Voices could be heard throughout the group, some people shouted and cursed at Kayaba at that moment as well.

"Ha-ha… what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear… It's just a game. Destroy our brain… How is he going to do that? Right, Kirito?

The Red Head shouted that last part at the black haired swordsman, now known as Kirito. Putting his hand in a thinking pose, he answered the man.

"...theoretically it's possible, but... he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit a strong pulse of that type. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability... inside..." He stopped midway, the reason why is obvious.

"There... is," he said, his words almost a scream with a hollow expression on his face. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But... that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?"

Kayaba answered that one.

『To be a little more specific, disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to: unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the Nerve Gear. The result...』

The metallic voice took a short breath here.

『...regretfully two hundred and thirteen players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever.』

Two—two hundred and thirteen, I thought to myself in shock. Among those, how many beta testers who could have helped us clear the now death game? The background noises faded out as I continued listening to Kayaba.

『Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game.』

Beat the game? I heard that even the beta testers only managed to reach the sixth floor in a span of two months… which meant that it would take around thirty-four months to clear it, or almost three years!

"What… What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!? This isn't a game anymore!" Kirito roared in anger.

『But I ask of you all to understand that «Sword Art Online» is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality... From now on, any form of revival in the game would no longer work. The moment your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time...your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear.』

Scratch that, I demanded in my brain, it may take five years now. Players, beta-testers or not would not dare kill any enemies for fear of dying. Considering the number of clearers during the beta test which was around three hundred, we would have three hundred or so who would try to clear to floor…

I look at the top left corner of my vision. It read

Monica: 342/342hp

My health points… no, my life force now. If it ever reaches zero, I will die with my avatar.

"No freaking way…" Kirito muttered in disbelief, I couldn't agree more.

『Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, its one hundredth floors, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word.』

"Clear… all hundred floors!?" The red hair man shouted. I really need to find out his name. "And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"

I silently agreed.

『Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this.』

On hearing it, I pressed my finger and thumb together and pulled downwards, the plaza was filled with the sound of bells as each person assessed his or her menu.

Opening up the menu, I entered my items menu that appeared and found an additional item, Hand Mirror.

Tapping the name and selecting 'Make into Object'. My hands grasp the cool mirror as I stared into it. It reflected a green haired female with sapphire eyes.

Don't tell me he is planning to do something to our avatars!

Too late, I realized as I was engulfed in a white light. As fast as it had appeared, the white light vanished. Immediately I looked into the mirror.

The green-haired individual was gone, replaced by a younger brunette sporting a pair of emerald eyes. My body was slimmer and a lot less developed. I then realized it was how I looked in real life.

"Who… are you?"

"Hey… who're you?"

As Kirito and the man figured things out, I placed the Hand Mirror back into my inventory. Multiple mirrors smashed onto the floor as the players exclaimed the lost of their avatars. As I looked around, majority of the females were gone, replaced by a large amount of men. They looked quite ridiculous in their current armor and… skirts…

"You're Klein!?" "You're Kirito!?"

"Kirito…" I tried to get his attention. I could not understand why my in-game avatar has the same proportions as my real life avatar.

"Eh? Yes?" Kirito had answered me with uncertainty, since he did not know me.

"Call me Monica; do you know why our characters now have the same body as our real life ones?" I questioned. I have adjusted my in game height to ten centimeter taller, but now I am back to my usual height of 1.7m. Kirito thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"Ah… wait. I bought the Nerve Gear just yesterday, so I remember. There was a part of the set-up… what was it called, calibration? During that bit you touched your body here and there, maybe it was that…?" Klein realized.

"Ah, right… that's what it was…"

I nodded my head, recalling the Calibration I had done a few months back.

"Reality…" Kirito muttered almost incoherently. "He said that this was reality; that this polygon avatar and our HP were to be our real body and our real life."

"So in order to make us believed that…" I gasped in shock, "he's produced a perfect copy of us…"

"But… But y'know, why? Why the hell's he doing something like this…?"

I had to agree with him. Why did Kayaba want to do something like this? I ruled out the idea of fame and fortune, since the Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online had already given him that. What could it be?

"Wait a moment. Most probably, he'll answer that in a bit." Kirito reasoned as he looked up again. As he said, Kayaba spoke again.

『You will all most probably be wondering, "Why." Why am I —the creator of the Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online, Kayaba Akihiko— doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us? 』

That is definitely not true... Kayaba is already rich...

『None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only is that so, but now for me, there no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.』

Then after a short break, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, spoke.

『...Now, I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players—I wish you luck.』

The last sentence trailed off with a faint echo. The huge robe rose soundlessly, merging with the system message above it. Once finished, the system message that covered the sky vanished.

I looked at the place Enzo stood, his hair now blonde and less muscular. Fear and disbelief is etched on his face. The NPC orchestra spread throughout the floor played a slow, haunting melody.

Each of us now feel the tremendous pressure of survival, while we all think that committing suicide in this game would get us out of this game. The threat of dying when our avatar died as well would prevent us from doing so. This would most likely result in everyone hiding away, hoping that it was all a dream.

After a long silence, the slightly less than ten thousand players reacted.

"This is a joke right...? The hell is this? It's a joke right!?"

"Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!"

"NO! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!"

"I don't like this! I'm going to go home! I want to go home!"

A cacophony of yells, clamors, shouts, curses, begging and screaming echoed throughout the central plaza. The players-turned-prisoners crouched down, clutching their heads, waved their arms about or grabbed each other while screaming and cursing Kayaba.

"This would be our new reality." I whispered to no one in particular, "If we die here, we would die."

"Klein, Monica, come over for a sec."

Kirito grabbed both the thuggish Klein and I, pulling us through the raging crowd. We did not stop until we reached the edge of the starting city.

"Listen to me; I'm getting out of this city and enter the next village now. Come with me." Kirito informed us. While I would have jumped at the plan, I stopped myself. The game cannot be cleared with such few numbers. As I had stated, we would only have a few hundred clearers if we did that.

"I'm sorry, Kirito. You'll have to go on without me. The game would not be cleared with so little people willing to fight. I'm staying behind to rally as many people to clear the game." I told Kirito. He nodded his head in sorrow and turned to Klein.

"Y'know, I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game. They are logged in and most likely they'd be in that plaza even now. I can't… go without them."

"Oh…" Kirito sighed and bit his lip. We had a moment of silence before Klein spoke up.

"No… I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques you've taught me till now. And… there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and we'll all be logged out soon. So don't worry about us and go to the village."

"Mm… Okay…" Kirito nodded sadly.

"Let's part here Kirito. We'll keep in touch by messages, alright? You'll be leading us in each boss fight, so don't die until we clear it!" I assured Kirito and sent him a friend request. Accepting it, he faced the gates and ran off. Klein then shouted.

"Kirito! You look pretty good in real life! You're quite my style!"

"Your look suits you ten times better too!" Kirito smugly yelled back at us.

I laughed at his comment before yelling at him.

"Don't worry about us! It's our decision to stay here! Make sure you are one of the strongest!"

"I will! I promise!"

We watched his figure disappear in the sunset before turning to face each other.

"Ah! You're a girl!" Klein suddenly exclaimed.

"Wha-What wrong?" I faltered at his exclamation.

"Na-name's Klein! Twen-Twenty-four years old and a bachelor!" He stammered, continuing to surprise me. I ended up blushing as I realized what he wanted to say.

"Mo-Monica… And now is not the time to find a girlfriend! We need to train as many people as we can to know how to use sword skills!" I yelled at his face, my own in a bright red colour.

"Why? We're stuck in this game for a long time anyway. It's better to build relations!" He cried while I tried to get rid of the blush on my face.

"Shouldn't we try to clear the game first? A-and I don't think I'm ready for such things now!" Honestly, this guy is starting to get on my nerves.

"Anyway, you learnt everything from that beta-tester, right? So you will have to teach me a number of things as well."

"How did you know Kirito is a beta-tester?"

"He would have been since he knew where the next village is, and the only people who are moving out of the starting city now are the beta-testers."

"What do you mean?"

"The beta-testers want to clear as many floors as they can now, since they would feel that they are responsible for trapping this many people in the death game. They also feel that they cannot take care of the other nine thousand players or so. That would be what we are doing while we let the beta-testers clear the first few floors, if they survive."

"What do you mean if they survive?"

"Simply put, while they do know some information about the game, Kayaba may have made changes to those monsters. With that said, those beta-testers would be unaware of these changes and may die due to that." I huffed in frustration.

"Then… What about Kirito! He's in danger isn't he? We need to get him back here!" Klein roared and tried to follow him had I not grabbed his collar.

"Do you think he would listen to us? We are beginners who have little to no experience in this game. How do you think we can convince him? It is better to let them find out on their own." I argued with him. Klein continued struggling against me.

"Besides, do you have an idea where he is?" Klein stopped after hearing it. "Thought so, let's focus on our task now and save as many people as we can."

I turned around and headed back into the plaza, pulling Klein with me.

"Do you think we would ever meet him again?" Klein suddenly brought that question up. I answered in the only way I know how.

"He must… He did promise us to be the strongest one when we meet him again…"

**A/N: The next chapter would be posted somewhere next week. Might be earlier if I get motivated. **


	4. First Day, First Boss

**Disclaimer: Need I still stay it? I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. I only own Monica and Enzo, who –**

**Monica: You're not allowed to spoil the chapter! D=**

**Chapter 3: The first day, and the first boss**

* * *

**November 6****th,**** Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Starting City 8:30pm**

When Klein and I neared the central plaza of the Starting City, we saw a blonde man running towards us. I realized it was Enzo on closer look. He was screaming something nonsensical, as if he was in a trance.

"We got to follow him… He might be planning something crazy…" I nudged Klein as I started to chase him.

We had a short chase before I saw Enzo did something that scarred me for the rest of my life.

Enzo jumped off the castle, yelling 'freedom' to his death.

I watched Enzo's figure disappear before my eyes, his polygons scattered in the wind.

"What… just happened…?"

I ushered those words out of my mouth as Klein stared at the spot Enzo was, eyes wide open as well.

"Oi, Oi… Is he crazy or something!? If we die here, we die in real life!"

Klein ranted on as I continued watching the place Enzo's polygons originally were at, trying not to believe he died. My vision became teary and my face started feeling wet.

"Monica."

"What…?"

"Let's go… we need to find my friends and prevent as many people from committing suicide."

"Ah… Un…" I could barely force my voice out now. Klein pulled my hand along, about to guide me towards to central plaza.

When we turned around, we saw a crowd gathering around us.

"What happened to that man?" On hearing that, Klein closed his eyes.

"He's dead… the system killed him…"

"What! He said that we would get disconnected if we jumped off! Are you lying?" One of the men had shouted at him. He made his way to the iron fence and peered down…

"Where is he?"

"I told you just now! He's dead! He's not coming back!" Klein yelled at him.

"LIAR! He got disconnected, right? He's out of the game! He escaped, didn't he? He said he helped with the programming!" The blue-haired man screamed back at him. He started climbing the fence. The sound cleared up my thoughts, and I roared at him.

"We're telling the truth!"

"Whose words are you going to listen to!? Some strangers we don't know!? OR a programmer's word!?" That man announced to the crowd.

"Hey, Joker! Don't do that! It's suicidal!" Someone in the crowd shouted at him, his friend?

"Nonsense! It's the easiest way to escape! Come on, we can get out of this game!"

"Don't!" That was the last thing he heard.

He jumped… and scattered quickly within minutes.

The crowd had gathered at the fence. Mutters of 'Did he escape' and 'did he die' were heard from them. By then, I had recovered from my shock.

These people, who jumped off from the castle, could not take the pressure of this death game… I can't save them…

"Klein… Let's go find your friends…"

"Hah…? But—"

"We can't save them… They've made up their mind…" I now pulled his hand along, away from those fences and all their deaths…

* * *

**November 6****th****, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Starting City 9:00pm**

"Good to see you, Dale!"

"You too, Klein! You finally got yourself a girlfriend?"

"Wish she was… she's only interested in clearing the game…"

I felt out of place with Klein's entire group gathered for their reunion. Proclamations of good health and jokes were exchanged between them while I leaned on a wall, watching it all…

I highly doubt my 'gaming friends', as I sarcastically call them are even interested in the Nerve Gear Machine. They constant mock me for playing games that no one knows.

What they didn't know was how advanced in their game I was that I had gotten quite bored of it. The companies of those games had begun to get repetitive during their updates, slapping fancy words for the 'new' systems and classes.

If I recall correctly, the game they are playing now is Blade&Soul… a game recently popular with them a few years back, but started at least a decade ago. I had reached the level cap before they got in and moved on to virtual reality games. They started making fun of me, thinking that virtual reality games did not exist. Those idiots… they never watch the news… Or maybe fortunately for them since they aren't stuck in this death game.

"Oi… Monica…"

I snapped out of my daydreaming when Klein waved his hands in front of me.

"Huh? What is it?"

"All of us are here have added each other to our friend list… do you want ours as well?"

"Oh. Sure."

By the time I had their names, it was already 9.45pm. They had agreed on meeting up tomorrow to go hunting. Once they've separated, I went to my skill list to select my second skill.

At the start of SAO, you had two skill slots to choose your skills. While today I had selected the skills for my main weapon, I still had an empty slot. Scrolling through the list, one in particular caught my eye.

Battle Healing

It's a skill that lets you regenerate your health points every ten seconds. At level one, it would recover ten hit points per ten seconds; I noted when I added the skill to my second slot. Wanting to level it early, I sent a message to Kirito.

Kirito,

There's a skill called Battle Healing that recovers health points over time. How do you level it?

Monica

After sending the message, I realized that Kirito might be sleeping. How foolish of me! I chided myself. I got out of the city to try to find a way to level it up. Outside, I then received Kirito's message.

Monica

Battle Healing gains experiences as it heal you while your HP is in the red zone, around 25% of your HP. After healing a certain amount of HP, it will level up.

Kirito

Looks like I know what I'll be doing tonight.

* * *

**November 7****th****, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Gates to Starting City 8:00am**

I yawned as I arrived at the designated place that Klein and I had agreed on. I only had about three hours of sleep, the rest of last night spent on leveling Battle Healing to level 9 as well as my level to 2. I ended up sleeping outside the Starting City since I was too tired. Klein noticed me coming from the outside.

"What were you doing outside the Starting City? There are dangerous monsters out there!" Klein whined.

"Oh shut up, Klein. You and I know that the boars outside the city don't retaliate unless attacked."

"That's not the point! What if a monster we've never encounter before appeared? You could have died."

"I'm alive, that's all that matters, right?"

Truth to be told, while grinding to level 2 on the Frenzy boars, I encountered a Great Boar Lord there. I managed to defeat it there after my health went into the red zone. Remembering the message from Kirito, I had decided to level my Battle healing skill as much as I could before anyone starting killing other players. More than eighty percent of the players are holed up in the inns, waiting for the government to rescue them. Five hundred players could not take the sudden change and jumped off the castle, leaving us with around a thousand players who are moving throughout the 1st floor, and less than five hundred players training on the Frenzy Boars outside the city.

Klein guided us to the spot that he and Kirito trained the day before, the spot sparsely populated with people due to the low concentration of Frenzy Boars there. On the way there, he recited all the information that he received from Kirito regarding sword skills. I quickly got the idea since I had some experience with it. The others had some problem since they were not used to moving their body, and I thought about the other players who had no one to guide them.

"Klein, you and your friends focus on leveling now. I'll go guide those players here that are training here."

"Eh? But—"

"I reached level two yesterday, so don't worry about me"

"I guess I can't stop you, huh?"

I smiled at Klein while holding a peace sign with my free hand.

"Nope!" I giggled as I ran off.

* * *

**3rd December****, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Illfang's tower, 20****th**** floor**

It's been three weeks since SAO started, two thousand people are dead, most of them from the mobs. In those three weeks, I spent two-thirds of it trying to help the other players get ready to clear hundred floors of Aincrad.

Currently, I am slightly below the average level of the majority of players, level four. Of course, I could had reached higher levels had I not tried to help the new players. During those times, I made many new friends. One of them was Egil, the intimidating foreigner who uses a two-handed battle axe suddenly became a merchant. That actually surprised me since I would have thought he would have gone for blacksmithing. Another one was Silica, a young girl who looks barely at the age of 12.

"Something on your mind?" A voice in front of me asked. It came from a man with bluish-cyan hair; I recalled that he introduced himself as Diabel.

"No, just wondering about my friends." With two-thousand players gone, a large number of beta testers are also gone, which meant that most likely, of the three hundred beta testers who actually climbed Aincrad, less than a hundred might be alive. While I know Kirito and Klein are alive, that means their level are also higher than mine.

"Diabel, look out!" Another man had shouted. Instinctively, he raised his shield to block the strike from a Ruin Kobold Sentinel, one of the strongest monsters of the first floor. Leaping over Diabel, I unleashed a Sword Skill Rapid Bite. The skill hit the sentinel on the head and caused it to stumble.

"Diabel, switch!"

"Roger!" Diabel replied as he dashed past me, sword glowing in a yellow tint, and unleash his own skill Rage Spike. The skill forced the sentinel a few more steps back.

"Midnight, switch!"

I stood up and watch them take care of the last Ruin Kobold Sentinel in this area. While I did join the party a few days ago, they were easy to get along with. Their teamwork was quite well and they seem to celebrate anything that they considered an achievement.

"Monica, switch!"

"Got it!" I replied as I charged up the sword skill Thrust towards the Sentinel. Releasing it, the Katar pierced through the Sentinel's armor, effectively killing it.

"That's the last of them." I sighed in relief as I placed the my Katar into it's sheath. Looking at the items that I got, I notice a new Katar that I could equip.

"Silver Fang huh? Its stats seem to be higher than my Bronze Katar, and it can upgrade seven times too."

Equipping the Silver Fang, I tested it weight with a few practice swings, the new Katar had a longer blade, which made me worried about its weight. Luckily, I still could equip it.

"Hey! You guys! Look at this!" Midnight yelled at us. Behind him stood a gigantic door with a forest design.

"Where do you think it leads to?" He yelled excitedly.

"Maybe the Kobold's Treasury, where else do they get the weapons from." I jabbed back at him with a smile on my face.

"Well, whatever it is, we're going to find out." Diabel said as he pushed the doors wide open. It revealed a wide, empty room…

"So much for treasure..." I muttered dejectedly. Midnight shakes his head in laughter.

"Whoever… said that there was a… Kobold Treasury? They are monsters, you know?" He moaned in between his laughs. I angrily stared at him.

"From the looks of it… I would say something big would happen here… who wants to go in?"Imperius, another party member of Diabel noted.

"I will." I declared as I strode in

The empty room reminded me of a throne room. Symbols decorated the red flooring from the door to the throne. There was a figure sitting on the throne and a Giant Battle Axe behind it. The figure's eyes glowed red…

"EH?" I screamed in surprise as the figure jumped into my view, his red skin reminding me of the Kobold's we faced earlier. His name was then revealed to us.

Illfang the Kobold Lord

The first floor boss has been found.

"Re-retreat!" I cried in terror as I scrambled to get out of the room. Our entire party ran as far as we could away from the room.

After a minute of catching our breath, we looked at each other in joy, knowing what we just found.

Now… we just need to find a way to organize a raid party to clear the first floor…

* * *

**A/N: Posted Slightly earlier than usual… Cause I have something on tomorrow. I know that Battle Healing requires one to take an enormous amount of damage to level up, but I don't really understand it. Thus I changed it to level up by healing a certain amount of damage while your hp is red.**


	5. Aria of the Bloodied Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters. I only own Monica and all characters not seen in the original story. Here are Monica current stats. Please tell me if you think the stats are abnormal.**

**Edit: Change some of her equipment, and battle healing does not give that much regeneration**

Nickname: The Mentor

Level: 5

Health Points: 462/462hp

Strength: 5

Agility: 10

Skills: One-handed Dagger Lv15, Battle Healing Lv17 (Regenerates 120hp per 10 seconds)

Equipments: Steel Chainmail, Bronze Bracers, Bronze Shin guards, Silver Fang (Katar) 16% speed reduction

**Chapter 4: Aria of the Bloodied Night.**

**1****st**** December, 8.00pm Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Marketplace of Tolbana**

I typed out a message as I walked down the street. Countless merchants announced their wares around me, creating a more traditional feel of the markets before modern times. After finding the first boss of the floor, our entire party agreed to spread the word to our friends and asked them to do the same, like the ghost network that I have read in a book before. I considered sending the message to Kirito last since I had a hunch that Kirito did not make any friends while grinding. After sending out the message to my friends, I had started composing a message for Kirito.

Kirito

Spread the word that the stairs to the 19th floor has been found. Anyone who wants to learn about the boss should come to the fountain at Tolbana on the 2nd of December.

On a personal note, how are you doing? What level are you? Hope you are doing fine by yourself. I've been meaning to ask, is grinding the only thing you can do? I'm pretty there is some rewards for reaching certain levels, maybe more skill slots or something. Hope to see you at the boss meeting.

Monica

Hitting send, I stopped for a moment, thinking about my message before I went to find Agil to sell my trash drops.

**1****st**** December, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Unknown place**

**Kirito's POV**

Monica,

I just reached lv11 the other day, and yes I've been doing fine. The third skill slot opens at lv10 and every subsequent 10 levels. You might want to ask Argo the Rat to help you spread the word. She works as an information broker and is willing not only to spread the message, but can give you some information about the boss as well, for a price of course. She had compiled the information from the beta and made a guidebook for it.

Don't worry, I'll be there.

Kirito

My hand hesitated for a moment before pressing the button. I had just gotten out of the boss tower when Monica's message had reached me. While the fact that the boss tower had been discovered filled me with glee, the other fact that she is spreading it by messages shows that most solo players would not turn up. As a result, I decided to introduce her to Argo, the rat. That girl's ability to spread information around is extremely essential for Monica to pass the messages to the solo'ers.

Closing the system message, I headed towards Tolbana. Not only to keep my word, but to help them clear the boss. It is a major step to show to players that clearing the game is not impossible.

**1****st**** December, 9.00pm, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Tolbana Inn**

As always, Kirito's message was straight to the point and contains helpful information, be it for training or for getting information. Looking at the time now, I think I should talk to Argo tomorrow, I thought to myself as I undid my ponytail.

The next day, just after I woke up, I started typing a message for Argo

Argo,

My name is Monica, I found out about you through my friend, Kirito. I need you to help my party spread the message that the first floor boss has been found and the last meeting for the boss is on the 2nd of December. I also need to get any information about the first floor boss, Illfang. I do not care if it is information during the beta or not, it would definitely help during the first floor clearance. As such, I want you to publish the information in the guide book you write. How much would that cost?

Monica

Reading the message several times, I was satisfied with the results. Hitting the send button, I then started to prepare for today. Diabel's party was planning to train on the Ruin Kobold Sentinels today, trying to reach level 8 before the boss meeting.

**2****nd**** December, 10.00am Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Tolbana**

Argo's heart leapt in happiness from reading the message from this "Monica". However, Argo's logical side soon kicked in. Pondering on the reply message for a long time, she then started typing.

Monica,

This is Argo, here to say that I do not believe you. If you want to receive the information about Illfang, you need to show me the map of the first floor dungeon, along with 250 cols. But if it is for your personal gain, I am willing to sell you that information for 1000 cols.

Argo

Hitting the send button, she starting preparing for the day, a reply was returned just after she applied the "rat" makeup on herself. It surprised her that the message contained exactly what she wanted. The map data all the way to the boss, sixty-percent completed, along with 250 cols.

Her brain worked quickly to provide the information of the first boss as she typed as fast as she could about Illfang. She really could not believe it, the first boss has been found.

**Monica's POV**

"Ah… Argo just replied to me." I suddenly voiced out while we were engaged with another group of kobolds. I pressed the button that showed the message and began reading it out to the party

Illfang the Kobold Lord has four health bars and uses a Buckler and Axe for combat, unlocking new skills each time a health bar is fully depleted. When his last health bar reaches half, he switches to a Sword-type weapon called a Talwar. Three Kobold Ruin Sentinels spawn every minute. This was all recorded from the beta-testers.

The party gasped at the detailed amount of information while I thought about it. If it was from the beta, there might be a chance that there were changes to the boss. As the party discussed about the strategy to defeat the boss now, I listened in on to the discussion.

"A raid party consists of 48 members, right? We would have enough to surround the boss."

"We need to also consider the Sentinels."

"Then we get 3 parties to deal with them, the other five can take on the boss with no problem."

Oh… I realized what I needed to ask Argo. I opened up the message and replied

Argo,

Were there any complaints about the difficulty of the boss?

Monica

The reply I received was…

It was too easy.

Oh no…

"Erm, we might need to work harder, the beta testers at that time said the battle was too easy…" I informed them, horror then was seem in their eyes.

**2****nd**** December, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Fountain at Tolbana. 6.00pm**

Diabel tried taking a deep breath as he watched the number of people gathered around the fountain. We had decided to let Diabel talk to the crowd since we were in his party when we found it.

"I'm getting nervous…" Diabel murmured to us, "How should we get into the discussion. Should I start it straight away or slowly? Ah…"

"How about opening it up with some light humor? They might die after all, we should let them enjoy as much as they can beforehand." I suggested.

"Ah… but how? I can't think of any…" Diabel continued to worry, at this rate he might break down before the group. I racked my brains for some ideas.

"Remember the time Monica joined us? She was finding a party to join, but no one trusted her until us came by." Midnight suddenly brought up.

"Oh right, she got suspicious and questioned if we are trying to act like knights in shining armor. That made me laughed in this game for the first time." Kurow, a red haired man that uses a dagger recalled our first meeting before collapsing in laughter.

"Of course I got suspicious, no one wanted to party with me and then suddenly a group of five were asking me to party with them. Wouldn't you get suspicious at that time?" I snapped back in embarrassment. I had spent most of the time getting the beginners to learn their skills and my level was very low at that time, so no one wanted to party with me. Diabel had seen me and wanted me to join his party since he saw me helping the newcomers and wanted to repay me for that. Naturally I got suspicious since no one was willing to party up with me. So they brought me along to help me level up till now.

"That's it! You could call yourself a knight! Since there are no job specifications, they might find it funny for one to have such a mindset!" Midnight concluded with satisfaction.

"What if they think that the discussion was a joke then? Wouldn't they leave if that's the case?"

"There is no way! It is the first boss meet after all; they would definitely stick around to hear the discussion."

"I guess I could try it out…" Diabel sighed with resignation. He then walked up to the center of the place.

I watched Diabel handed the audience with some pride, a few seconds ago he was a nervous wreck. But after he delivered his joke to the group, the group had laughed at his expense. After a few minutes of calming the group, he announced what we had found.

The reaction was not surprising, everyone was discussing if it was true or not, or if they were ready for it. From Argo, a raid party of 48 level 3s could accomplish the first boss with a number of casualties, but at our level we could conquer at least the first three floors quickly.

Now that the discussion had started, the groups were gathered together. I managed to see Kirito now, looking around in panic. Honestly… that boy really shouldn't be left alone. He ended up in a party with a cloaked person. Everyone was in a group already.

I started counting the number of parties, seven in total. Since each party consist of six players including Kirito's, that means there were forty-four players for the first boss. Hopefully that would not pose a problem.

"I'll say that that duo should not engage with Illfang, there are too little members for him to take on." Diabel whispered to me. I nodded in agreement.

"Wait a moment! Knight-san." A voice came out from one of the six parties. A man whose yellowish-brown hair styled like a cactus approached us.

"Before that, there is one think that must be cleared up; otherwise I cannot join you."

Diabel's eyes narrowed for an instant, it looked faked and seems really suspicious.

"Opinions are certainly welcome. But if you are going to speak, you should tell us your name.

"Hn… I am Kibaou. In this group, about five to ten players need to apologize to the two thousand dead players!"

There was an ominous silence in the air, the players were now unable to speak up due to the fear of being labeled as "one of them".

"Kibaou-san, your 'those guys' are… the original beta testers, right?"

"Obviously! On the day this shitty game started, they dashed from the Starting City and disappeared, leaving behind nine thousand people who didn't know left from right. They monopolized good hunting grounds and profitable quests, got stronger without a care for those behind. ...There should be some in this group, hiding their beta status, some sly people thinking of joining the boss fight. I want them to kneel down once, to the party members their lives depend on. That's what I want to say!" Kibaou ended his sentence with a snap of his teeth.

That idiot, if we had not consulted information from the beta, we would have ended up with a lot more casualties compared to now. Even if the information is seventy-five percent accurate, with what we don't know changed, it is still extremely dangerous. The beta-testers around here are the one who would guide us to victory this time, since they know the skills of Illfang.

I wanted to stand up, walk to the bastard and slap him in the face. But a dark skinned man came up to him.

"May I speak?" that familiar faced man asked Kibaou. Kibaou gave his consent to the man Agil.

"My name is Agil. Kibaou-san, what you mean to say is that many beginners died because original beta testers did not take care of them, and you wish for them to accept that responsibility and apologize, isn't that correct?"

"Th-That's right."

Kibaou, momentarily overwhelmed, took a step back, but soon returned forward. With his shiny, small eyes glaring at the axe user called Agil, he shouted.

"If they had not left us behind, two thousand people would not have died! However, they were not just any two thousand people; most of them were top ranks or veterans from other MMO's! If those shitty testers had properly shared information, items and money, then there would have been ten times the people here... no, by now we would have broken through the second or third floor!"

Only you could come up with something that stupid. The reason why we could not find it was because no one bothered to look for it, either hiding away or grinding to become the best.

"That's what you say, Kibaou-san. I don't know about the money and items, but I believe you mentioned information?" Agil replied with confidence. He pulled out a brown book that all of us had seen before.

"You got this guidebook for free at the item shops of Horunka and Medai, right?"

"—Got it. What about it?"

Kibaou's sharp voice interrupted my thought process. Agil put his strategy guide back in his pouch, and said with arms crossed.

"This guide, whenever I reach a new village or town, is always found in the item shop. It's the same for you right. The information comes too soon, don't you think?"

"So what if it's too soon!?"

"The ones, who provided the information on monsters and map data in this, cannot be anyone other than the original beta testers. Also-"

Agil then pointed at me.

"- This young lady here was at the Starting City, teaching all those who did not know how to play the game. She was taught by the beta-testers and wanted to help all of us learn than to leave us in the lurch."

All the players went abuzz. Kibaou closed his mouth sharply, and the knight Diabel behind him nodded in an 'I see' way.

Once all eyes were again directed on Agil, who spoke with his far-carrying baritone.

"You see, there is information. And even still, many players died. That reason is _because_ they were veteran MMO players, I think. They found SAO similar to other titles, but missed a key difference. However, now is not the time to hunt down who is responsible for those casualties. Whether we become a casualty or not, and how that influences this meeting, is what I think."

Agil possessed a very imposing countenance, and his argument was also extremely straightforward, so that Kibaou could only stand in the shadows in silence. If anyone else other than Agil claimed the same thing, then Kibaou would probably counter with 'Saying that means you are an original beta tester', I think. But, as it was now, all he could do was glare at the giant with hatred.

Behind the two silently confronting each other, Diabel, still standing on the fountain's edge, his long hair dyed purple from the evening sun, waved as he nodded once more.

"Kibaou-san, I can understand your point. I, too, went into unknown territories, and finally arrived here after many near deaths. But, as this Agil-san said, isn't it now time to look forward? Even original beta testers... no, especially original testers, we need their fighting strength for this boss strategy. If we removed them, and that resulted in the attack failing, what would be the point? Everyone, you each have your own preferences, but right now, I would like for you to cooperate to break through the first floor. If there are people who will not fight alongside original testers under any circumstance, then it is unfortunate, but you are free to leave. For a boss fight, teamwork is essential"

Really… Diabel was acting like a Knight in shining armor. Giving inspirational speeches and doing his best to organize a raid group. He was trying to become a hero everyone would look towards.

The 'knight's' gaze swept across everyone, finally stopping at Kibaou. The cactus head swordsman made a huge snort then spat out these words.

"...Fine, I will listen to you for now. But I want it to be clear, black and white, only up until the boss fight is finished."

With his scale mail clinking, Kibaou retreated from the front of the group. Agil, too, spread his arms, showing that he had nothing more to say and returned to his previous place.

"Alright… Now can we continue? The latest edition of the guidebook was just issued, containing information on the boss."

I tuned everything out from here on since it was really what I told them.

**2****nd**** December, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Central Plaza of Tolbana, 9.00pm**

I watched Diabel and Kibaou curl their arms around each other's arm in their oath before drinking it. Kirito should be somewhere nearby, probably with his team members. I managed to spot Kirito entering a dark alley and followed him. Seeing him speak to his team members, I approached his back silently and whispered to him.

"You should party up with others more."

Kirito jumped from the scare.

"Mo-Monica! I didn't see you there!"

"I just came by to say hi," I replied cheerfully. "Also I am congratulating you for being the highest leveled characters for now." I continued as I shook his hand.

"Ah… Thank you…" Kirito blushed from the sentence.

"You're welcome. But seriously, why are you shying away from partying up with other players? It was our decision to let you go off."

"It's… It's because I felt guilty for leaving you two behind…"

"We've told you that it was our decision. You should not be feeling guilty."

"Sorry…"

"What am I going to do with you…?" I gave an exasperated sigh before walking away.

**4****th**** December, 1****st**** floor of Aincrad, Outside Illfang's throne. 12.30pm**

A few days ago, Diabel showed that his leadership is not just with speech and was also pretty good in the finer details. But there is room for improvement.

He checked over the seven 6-person parties after the first meeting, and with the smallest number of switches, formed seven specialized parties: Two heavy armor Tank parties. Three high movement, high attack Assault parties. Two long weapons Support parties. But when it came to Kirito's party, he just told them.

"You two, make sure none of the Kobold Guards remain, and please support Group E."

The cloaked person wanted to argue, but Kirito just nodded. We are now at the same gate I ran from a day ago, all ready to defeat the boss. I took a glance at Kirito, hoping that the lack of members did not bring him down.

Diabel lifted his steel long sword up high, and gave a large nod. The forty-three raid members also raised their weapons and nodded in reply.

His long green hair fluttered as he turned around; the knight placed his left hand in the center of the large doors――

"――Let's go!"

With a short cry, he pushed the doors open with all his might.

**4****th**** December, 1****st**** floor of Aincrad, Illfang's throne, 1.00pm**

The battle between Illfang and the raiding group is going smoothly so far. Our group had taken away the first health bar, Group D had removed the second and Group F and G had just taken away the last bar. Illfang's life has reached half of the last bar.

Illfang now stood straight up, roaring in anger. Tossing away its old weapons, it reached to the back of its rear and pull out a curved sword as tall as itself.

"Group F and G, switch with us! Those in my group, surround the boss!" Diabel commanded us in succession. Making my way behind a pair of dagger-users, I flashed a brief smile to them as they retreated back.

While we got into position, Illfang swung its Talwar at Diabel, who barely avoided the strike. Giving a single nod to every member of Group C, we closed in…

…Only to watch in fascination and horror when Illfang took to the sky, bouncing along the pillars to confuse us even more. Where is he going to strike? That was the thought I had before I heard Kirito's voice.

"This won't do, fall back! Retreat quickly-!"

It was too late by then, Illfang's sword skill had activated, swinging the sword horizontally in a full circle. The sword struck all six of us squarely in the chest, and because I had instinctively took a step back after hearing Kirito, I was the only one who tumbled into the other groups. I realized that my vision was blurred when I got over the impact.

"Damn it, Stun!"

I was lying face up, and could not see the rest of my members. When I saw Diabel being tossed into the air, I was filled with a sense of dread.

No! Not him as well!

Diabel's body began to get sliced up by Illfang's "Talwar" and his health bar depleted to zero within a moment's notice.

"Diabel!"

I screamed as hard as I could. By this time, the stun effect had worn off. I started looking around at the rest of the raiding groups. With exceptions from Agil's group, the rest of the players were in shock. Most of them were in shock, they did not expect the leader of the group to fall first. Many of them would flee once they got over their shock.

Above it all, with too many deaths ―― including the leader ―― and the boss strategy that was issued failed, it would be difficult to assemble another force to raid the boss again. In other words, all attempts to clear the death game SAO would lead to failure. The eight thousand survivors would not be warriors of the virtual world, but prisoners trapped in the first floor until there is some kind of «end»...

Flashbacks of my time in high school went into my brain. I remember sitting there doing nothing when our group leader had transferred schools suddenly without notice. At that time I was thinking that we would only lose our jobs in real life situations at worse, it was not like we would end losing our lives if we could not complete the job.

"...Why... Why... Diabel-san, the leader, why the first..."

But this situation would kill forty-two others if no one steps up as the leader now. So as much as I knew someone with better leadership should have taken it, I spoke.

"I'm taking the position of command now! Everyone, move out of Illfang's range immediately!"

My voice caught the attention of the other parties, and they starting running away instead of retreating while facing the boss. Quickly biting on a potion and holding it there, I ran up to engage Illfang.

With no one to switch with me, using sword skills were dangerous. But a well known fact shows that while in the air, the motion input of swords skills were a little more messed up. I leapt into the air, using my Katar to deflect Illfang's new weapon from reaching the other parties as much as possible. Even during the exchange of attacks, my health bar decreased rapidly compared to Illfang, despite supposedly drinking a health potion, a trick I found out by accident, and I know I could only hold against Illfang for a minute or so.

My health bar turned into a small dot just before Kirito yelled to me to switch with him. Unleashing the sword skill Thrust, I gave Kirito a smirk as he jumped to intercept what skill Illfang would kill me with. Next to him was a young female with chestnut brown hair brandishing a silver rapier.

Moving to regroup with the rest of the members, who had stopped a short distance away from the door. I fished out another health potion and proceeded to drinking it as fast as I could.

"So what's the plan, my leader?" Agil's deep voice resounded behind me.

"Have your group recover the as much damage you have taken and try to draw the attention of Illfang towards to when you go in again. I'll be supporting Kirito later." To the others, I yelled, "Anyone who feels that they can help defeat the boss, follow Agil now!"

Agil gave me a serious nod before taking off with several members from Groups A and D. Once they switched with Kirito, I moved to meet up with Kirito.

"Kirito, I assume you know most of his skills now, so I came to give you support. You are free to command the members of the raid party." I calmly stated to the beta tester. His dark eyes gave me a hint of surprise while he swallowed his potion before giving a reply.

"Understood, I'll be relying on you and Asuna, then." We gave each other a nod before Kirito shouted commanding Agil's ragtag band of Tanks on how to intercept Illfang's attacks.

Agil's team of six were not pressured into desperately countering the way Kirito instructed, instead they used their shields and large weapons to guard themselves. In the first place, majority of them were players with the ability to endure any attacks, having both high defense and amounts of HP, but receiving zero damage from the boss's released sword skills was impossible. A loud sound effect would occur, and each time, their gauges were gradually reduced.

In between the group, was a single fencer who danced lightly, Asuna. Never fleeing to the boss's back from its front, as long as Illfang was in a recovery period, «Delay», for even a moment, the chance to impale its body with her skill was never wasted. Of course, after repeated strikes the boss would have focus on Asuna, but the six men appropriately used skills to regain the target's attention to them.

Even though it was a dangerous battle, the balance in danger of collapsing if even one of the factors failed, the situation still lasted for close to five minutes.

Soon, the boss's HP finally went below thirty percent, and the final gauge was dyed in red.

At that moment, perhaps letting down his guard for a moment but one of the players acting as a tank tripped over. While staggering, where the player stopped, was positioned right behind Illfang. Kirito immediately command him to switch with me since his health was still in the yellow while mine had just reached green, but both of us had started running together.

The boss was about to use his sword skill when I jumped in front of the fallen man, with the sword skill Vertical ready to be unleashed. My blade deflected its blade barely, and I spun around from the impact, my health reaching the yellow zone again. Kirito switched with me, his own sword skill ready to be unleashed.

"Reach… it-!"

Zashuu!

A loud slashing sound emitted. The intense light effects which showed that it was a critical hit flashed in my eyes. In the next moment, the Kobold king's mass was sent tilting to its side, crashing to the ground before the tornado that is its attack could even form.

Just before it landed, I called.

"Full attack!"

A myriad of yells occurred as the others rained blows on it. As all of us unleashed sword skill after sword skill, I suddenly heard Kirito gasped.

"We're not going to make it!? Asuna, Monica, one final sword skill, let's go for it!"

"Understood!" Asuna replied with determination while I gave a grin.

"You got it!"

I positioned my hands into a familiar sword skill that I constantly used, Rapid Bite. Charging towards the oncoming boss, I once again intercepted Illfang's next and final sword skill. The red battle maiden with brown hair thrust her rapier into Illfang's wrist, effectively disarming him. Kirito attacked the boss directly with Illfang using Vertical Arc, delivering the final blow to Illfang.

The Kobold king's gigantic frame suddenly lost its strength, staggering backward.

Its wolf-like face looked at the ceiling, as it gave a howl. On its body, various cracks appeared noisily, snapping and crackling.

Both its hands went slack and its Nodachi fell on the floor. Aincrad's first floor's boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord's body shattered into millions of fragments.

As the boss disappeared, the remaining Sentinels in the back seemed to have scattered into the void as well.

The hue of the shining torches on the walls changed from a gloomy orange into a bright yellow. The dimness in the boss's room was removed at once, and from goodness knows where a cool wind swept across the room, taking away the heat of the battle.

There was barely any who broke the silence. Group G and E who remained in the back, Group A, C, D and F who were on their knees, awaiting recovery, and Agil alongside his Group B, the «Final Wall», sitting on the floor, dazedly looking around. It was almost as if we were worried if the terrifying demi-human king would revive.

A message popped out in the air, with the words 'Congratulations' on it.

"We-we did it!" suddenly the room was filled with cheer of victory, some people threw both hands up in the air, some embraced their comrades, some danced nonsensically. We have a long moment to rejoice before Ryu, a scimitar user from my party, yelled.

"Why... Why did you leave Diabel-san to die!?"

**Kirito's POV**

The man who had shouted at me was from Monica's group, Group C… which was also the deceased knight Diabel's group. If I looked past him, the remaining three members of Monica's party were behind him, stood looking disheveled. Some of them were crying.

Looking at the scimitar user again, I murmured. I really couldn't understand those words.

"Let him die…?"

"That's right! Because… Because you knew the skills the boss used, didn't you! If you gave us that information from the start, Diabel wouldn't have died!"

Speaking as if he was vomiting blood, the remaining raid members began to mumble. "Now that you mention it..." "Why...? It wasn't even written in the strategy guide..." Such voices were born, and gradually spread across the room.

Giving them the answers, as I had expected, was Kibaou ――

No. He was standing motionlessly further away, as if trying to resist something that was pulling at his mouth. However, one of the team members of Group E under his leadership walked closer toward me, pointing at me with the index finger on his right hand, and said.

"I... I know! This guy: he's a beta tester! That is why, the boss's attack patterns, good hunting spots and quests, he knows all of them! He hid them despite knowing about them!"

Even though he heard those words, the scimitar user and other members from Group C did not show surprise. I thought they might have heard it from Diabel, but ―― as a beta tester himself, and hiding that fact from his comrades, it was unlikely that Diabel brought up the topic of beta testers on his own ―― when I saw through those katana skills that should have never been seen before by anyone, they must have known since then.

Instead, the scimitar user's eyes seemed to seethe in hatred, as he tried to shout out something again.

It was interrupted by the mace user who had served as a tank with Agil until the end. He raised his hand honestly, and said in a calm tone.

"Even so, the guide that was handed out yesterday, it was written that it was only information on the boss's attack pattern during the beta period, right? If he was really a beta tester, wouldn't his knowledge be the same as in the guide?"

"That- That is..."

Substituting the Group E member who became silent, the scimitar user spoke in a voice dripping with hatred.

"That strategy guide was a lie. Argo's information shop was selling lies. That person was a beta tester after all, there's no way she would have given us the truth for free."

_This is bad. This is becoming very bad._ I quietly held my breath. I could endure any amount of condemnation on myself. However, a situation where hostility flares up towards the other testers, starting with Argo, was one that I want to avoid by all means. But ―― But, what should I do...

At this time, as I looked down on the light black floor. The system message was still vividly displayed. The acquired experience, col, and items... and instantly an idea occurred to me.

Additionally, a large conflict within it caused my body to quiver. If I take this choice, I don't know what kind of future I will see. There was the risk of being killed in a sneak attack, like what I had feared in the past. However ―― at the very least, the animosity directed against Argo and other beta testers might just be avoidable...

Behind me, in silence, Agil and Asuna who had patiently endured up to this moment opened their mouths at the same time, but it was Monica's voice that caught everyone's attention.

"My goodness… Does no one know what a beta test is for anymore?"

The sound of her voice reminded me of those ojou-samas, formal and authoritative. It sounded like she was daring someone to challenge her. When no one spoke up, she continued.

"A beta test is the last stage of testing. A group of randomly selected people are allowed early access to the game for the company's feedback. Anything that felt as if it was not part of the system were changed or removed." A grim smile then appeared on her face.

"Agro, the one you were calling a beta tester, gathered as much information from the other testers, including what they felt about the game. Much to our shock, all those who cleared the level felt that the boss was too easy to defeat at that time. What do you think the company; Argus would do when they heard it?"

"Don't tell me…" I realized that in the short time that the accusations were coming out, Monica had come up with a better idea compared to me. I was originally planning to set all the hatred on myself by differentiating myself from the other tester, calling myself something else. Heck, I did not know what the beta test was for other than to let other people have early access to the game.

"They upped the difficulty of Illfang, of course… Kirito, may I ask at what floor did you then encounter Illfang's other sword technique." Her weapon was on my neck by the time she finished her sentence. What the heck was she doing? After thinking for a bit, I felt that it was better to tell her now.

"Ah… Floor Ten, the labyrinth district named Thousand Snake Castle. There were Samurai type monsters which I could not break through. So I got myself to learn every move by receiving every hit to feel and determine its skill name and trajectory motion. By the time I was finished, the beta had ended. To think that it would come in handy now…" If there was one thing I could not handle, it was girls. They change their moods too quickly.

"So you had no idea that his weapon was not this 'Talwar' that was mention in the guidebook?"

"No, the only reason why I know about it was because I realized the similarities of their moves. I think it was called a Nodachi."

Monica stared at me for a moment, before she slowly removed her blade from my neck. I let out a breath that I was unconsciously holding and collapsed onto the ground after realizing it.

"In other words, if Kirito did not notice the similarities of the skills, all of us here would have died." This sentence caused a short uproar.

"He could have been lying!"

"You Bitch, you are a beta tester as well right!? Screw you!"

The uproar was quickly dispelled when Monica gave them a death glare.

"Do you think a beta tester would not speak when he was going to die!? That they are willing to keep their secrets to themselves to death!? THEY ARE CIVILIANS PLAYING THE SAME GAME AS US!" She roared the last sentence at them.

"Then why did they ditch us on the first day!?" Kibaou replied in an angry tone. Monica then tilted her head downwards.

"What makes you think so? With the way people treat the beta testers now, what makes you think your party has no beta testers?"

On hearing that, many of the players got relentless, nervously glancing from side to side. Kibaou almost started grabbed his friends and asking them if they were inside the beta.

"Most of the beta testers had a simple mindset, they would try to help as many as they could. Those that could not handle such pressure would decide to train by themselves to help clear the floors with the others willing to come." Silence now filled the air, and I continued.

"I know who Argo is; she is the kind of person who prides herself with her work. Her information needs to be reliable if she wanted people to trust her. Most of the information was correct, but I will speak to her about this change in information. I apologize on her behalf and assure you that I will inform you of her reasoning as soon as I can. Now it is time to access the second floor, where new monsters await. Anyone who feels unprepared for this journey should head back to the city for now; the rest who are coming with us would activate the teleport gate on the second floor. Those who are following us should come to the stairs behind the throne."

It took a while before everyone confirmed their decision. The group heading to the next floor consisted of me, Asuna, Agil's entire party and Monica. The rest were heading back to inform the people on the first floor about their success."

Our party had changed to a four-slash-five man group, with Agil switching parties to join us.

After climbing the narrow spiral staircase for a while, a door appeared once more.

As it gently opened, a spectacularly scenic view jumped into my eyes. Outside of the door was a steep cliff by the hillside. A narrow terrace-like fleet of stairs down the hill was set to the left in the rocks, but I first swept my eyes through the scenic view of the second floor.

Unlike the complex and various terrain of the first floor, the second floor was lined from one end to the other with flat-topped mountains. The mountain tops were covered in lush green grass, where gigantic ox-type monsters swaggered about.

The second floor's district town, Urbus, looked as if it was a city entirely excavated out from the flat-topped mountain at the bottom of my sight. I now went down the fleet of stairs, as I had earlier described, it only required walking a short kilometer across the field, to reach the «Teleport Gate» in the central square of Urbus which would be activated upon touch, linking to the «Starting City» on the first floor.

If, by any chance, we died along the way ―― or perhaps, if we sat here idly, two hours after the boss is defeated, the teleport gate would open by itself automatically. But today, the fact that the first Raid unit was going to challenge the boss must have already been conveyed to the Starting City, and many players would now be waiting at the teleport gate, waiting for the moment the blue warp gate appears. We really should hurry to Urbus for their sake, but... for just a little bit more, I should have the right to immerse myself in this breath-taking view.

Letting myself take the rear, I took a few steps forward and sat down near a terrace jutting out from the rocks.

Beyond the lined Rocky Mountains, from the opening of Aincrad's perimeter, a little bit of the blue sky could be seen.

Asuna went to sit next to me before asking.

"You know, I never gave you my name, and you never told me yours, right? How did you know my name?"

"Ha!?"

I involuntarily cried out while the rest looked at me with confusion, but I ignored them. How did I find out ―― because we were still in a party, so in the upper left corner of my field of vision, two HP gauges were displayed, and underneath one, five letters, [ASUNA], were clearly written.

"Ah... co- could it be... this is the first time you've formed a party with someone...?"

"Yes."

"...I see."

My mouth slacked open involuntarily, as I lifted my right hand, pointing to the left edge of Asuna's field of vision.

"Around here, you can see an additional HP gauge other than your own, right? Underneath it, isn't something written there?"

"Um..."

Murmuring, Asuna turned her face, trying to look to the left, and I held back her cheeks with my fingertips subconsciously.

"When your face moves the gauge would also move. With your face fixed, use your eyes to look to the left."

"Like... Like this?"

Asuna's hazel eyes moved about clumsily, and saw a string of words I could not see. Out of her glossy lips, came three quiet sounds.

"Ki...ri...to. Kirito? Is that your name?"

"Yup." I gave her a short smile.

"Really... This whole time, it was written here..."

Asuna whispered, and her whole body suddenly shook. And finally, I realized my palm was still left on her cheek. This was―― just like some sort of «Pre-motion».

I let my hand go in a hurry, and a 'Gyuntto' sound was likely made from the force as I looked away. After a few seconds, I heard her giggling ―― or at least, that's what it felt like. Eh, could she be laughing? That transcendent «Linear» user, Kobold 'Overkill' performer Asuna-san? I thought in my mind, but despite the strong desire to see her face, I desperately endured it.

Regrettably, the laughter soon stopped, replaced by a quiet voice.

"...To tell the truth, Kirito, I followed you here to thank you."

"...For the cream bread, and the bath?"

As I asked without thinking, "That's not it," she replied in a somewhat scary voice, and she immediately continued with a "...Although, that may be a part of it, too."

"That's right... there are a lot of things. Thanks for the many things. I... In this world, for the first time I found an aim, something that I want to chase after."

"Heh... What is it?" As I glanced at her, Asuna flashed a brief smile,

"It's a secret." That was all she said. She stood back up, and stepped back.

"...I will, do my best. Do my best to become stronger, to get to my aims."

I faced my back to her, and nodded gently.

"Ah... You will be strong. Not only in your sword techniques, but like Monica, you will have greater and more valuable strength. So, if one day someone you trust invites you to a guild, don't you refuse. There's an absolute limit for solo players, after all..."

For the next few seconds, only Asuna's breathing could be heard.

Eventually, the words that reached me, were a little unexpected.

"Kibaou has a message for you"

Asuna gave a small cough, and with a serious face, attempted to imitate the Kansai dialect with awkward results.

"...'You may have helped me today, but I still don't recognize you. I will aim to clear this game my own way.' was what he said."

"Ah..."

We now walked towards the new town in silence, Agil and Monica chatting animatedly in front of us. Something about going for the second boss raid together with these members.

"...The next time we meet, tell me just how you carried me out of that labyrinth section."

"Ah..."

That's a piece of cake, I thought of following up with that, but I swallowed those words. Instead, I answered with a simple "I understand."

About halfway towards Urbus, was a small icon of a letter in the right corner of my field of vision flashed.

It was a Friend Message, of which could be sent and received even when not on the same floor. And I have only registered two players as friends. My first friends Klein and Monica and ―― the information dealer, Argo the Rat.

Who is it? I wondered as I opened the message, and found it was the latter.

[Looks like I gave you a really hard time, Ki-bou]

Looking at these first few words, "Info sure travels fast!" was what I ended up reflexively speaking aloud. I continued reading, and scrolled through, but there was only one following sentence.

[To apologize, I will sell you one piece of information on anything at all for free.]

Oh ho_._ I couldn't help but grin, and I continued to walk once again while taking out the hologram keyboard, and quickly typed out a reply.

[Then tell me the reason for your whiskers in person.]

Then, I pressed the send button, laughed once more, and having reached the ground of the second floor at that very moment, we reached the main city, «Urbus».

The nine of us surrounded the teleport gate, holding our final discussion together.

"What are your plans now?" Monica asked all of us. Each of us gave different replies.

With exceptions from Monica, all of us were going to grind for the next boss battle. Monica herself is going back to the first floor to teach those people who want to help clear Aincrad.

"In that case, all of us here should go for the second floor's boss raid together." Agil concluded.

"That would be impossible for me; I won't have any time to train…" Monica tried to excuse herself.

"That won't be a problem, Kirito and I can help you level up after you helped the others." Asuna suggested. Monica thought long and hard about it before nodding her head.

"I guess I would be relying on you guys now." She smiled.

**4****th**** December, Aincrad Unknown floor, Unknown Location.**

A figure sat on a throne, looking at the statistics on his UI interface.

"Well… I sure did not except them to break through the first floor so quickly…" He mused in amusement. He watched the entire scene of the battle, taking down names which piqued his interest. By the end of the video, only three names were at the list.

"It's a start, I suppose…" he sighed after re-watching it another time. No one other that those three did anything noticeable. Monica's ability to calm herself down quickly would prove useful for taking command while Asuna's loyalty would assist in breaking through the floors. Kirito does not have either of these qualities, but he has an extremely fast reaction time to cover any flaws that Monica would make.

"The story is about to begin." He laughed to himself, before giving a command to the system.

"GM command, teleport to starting city."

**A/N: Finally done. Hah… Review please! I added some changes to the story already, like Kirito not turning into a beater, Asuna's conversation with Kirito and Kirito walking towards Urbus with Agil's and his own party. I think anyone would know who the person in the last part of the story is. I wanted to try writing out a small story for him, since I wanted to try understanding his feelings.**

**Monica's current statistics:**

Nickname: The Mentor

Level: 6

Health Points: 486/486hp

Strength: 6

Agility: 12

Skills: One-Handed Dagger Lv 16, Battle Healing Lv 17 (120hp recovered per 10 seconds)

Equipment: Steel Chainmail, Bronze Bracers, Bronze Shin guards, Silver Fang (Katar). 16% speed reduction.

**On a side note, I really wanted to do Rondo of the Transient Sword and Monochrome Concerto… But because they are still being written, I'll most likely have Monica doing something else while Kirito and Asuna are following the story…**


	6. Nicolas of the Redeemed Days

**My Computer cannot handle the pressure of Assassin's Creed 3… T_T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. I only own the late Enzo and Monica, is that good enough? Oh and if anyone can guess who are the new characters gets to cameo!**

Monica's Current Stats (6/12/2022)

Nickname: The Mentor

Level 7

Health: 510/510hp

Strength: 7

Agility: 14

Skills: One-handed Dagger Lv16, Battle Healing Lv19 (130hp per 10 seconds)

Equipment: Steel Chainmail +2 (1Q, 1D), Bronze Bracers +1(1D), Bronze Grieves +1(1D), Silver Fang (Katar) +2 (2Q). 16% speed reduction.

**Chapter 5: Nicolas of the Redeemed Day**

* * *

**December 6, Aincrad 1****st**** Floor, Central Plaza of Starting City, 12pm.**

I could only gawk at the sheer number of players who gathered around for today's tutorial. The entire crowd was motivation from the fact that the first floor has been cleared, and now the number of players who wants to clear the floor has risen abruptly. From a small fraction of about a thousand players, the clearers were starting the number about three thousand now. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before gathering everyone's attention.

"Can everyone hear me?" I gave a shout. The entire crowd turned to face me in a few seconds. From their stares, I could feel a chill running down my spine. I swallowed hard.

"Greetings, everyone! My name is Monica or the Mentor as I was suddenly dubbed as."

"The Mentor is a girl!?"

"Whoa, to think that such a pretty girl could be a teacher…"

I raised my arms to silence the crowd.

"The objective today is to learn how to survive on hunting grounds… Not get any information on me, okay!?" Hearing the audience silence for a moment, I continued.

"First off, get into a group, a party of four to six is recommended." A cacophony of shuffles of the feet could be heard as I waited for them to group up. There were a couple of groups who were not paying attention to me until I started ushering the smaller groups to join up with one another.

"Alright! For those smaller groups who merged with another, get to know one another now, this game requires all of you to cooperate to survive and get stronger. If anyone in the team is not trusted, the whole team is liable to die!" Despite knowing that I should not de-motivate them like so, it may work the other way and get the groups to trust one another more easily, soon, the whole plaza was filled with chatter and laughter. I smiled at the sight, I was doing well despite it being my first time organizing such a tutorial for those who want to fight but do not know how to play the game.

"Does everyone know who their team mates are now!?" voices of 'Yes', 'Of Course' and 'Okay' was my reply. "Now everyone press their right index finger and thumb together, and pull it downwards." I did a quick demonstration of opening up my menu. "This is your main menu, where all of your information are stored. I want everyone to try it now."

Now the Plaza was filled with the ringing of bells.

I gave a summary of what each category were, how the menu is operated and any concerns about the menu to my best of my abilities. After that I had everyone equip a fighting skill to one of their skill slots. Quite a number did not know how to do a simple drag a drop to the character; I patiently helped each individual that had problems… Okay, I did flare up a good number of times… But seriously speaking, being asked the same question so many times would make you feel frustrated anyway.

"To start off everyone, each skill has a starting position for activating them. There is an endless amount of skills to use in this game, but we will start with the skill Horizontal first, which most of the players have. Bring your sword arm across your chest, below your chin and a hand spacing in front of your chest." This caused many people to suddenly swing their weapons due to the system assist. Those who did not either did it entirely wrong or were using the wrong weapons. Soon, the players were happily executing Horizontal on each other, since in the Inner Area, damage is nullified.

Agil, who was kind enough to assist me, would deem if certain parties were ready to try it out on the Frenzy Boar. He would lead that party to the outskirts of the Starting City and observe them. If they could execute the sword skill and communicate with one another easily, he would allow them to venture out of the starting city.

We fell into this cycle for a few weeks: I would teach the beginners in the mornings and the afternoons and train with Agil and Asuna at night, having three to four hours of sleep each night. Kirito disappeared after we had opened the second floor portal, and only appeared during the floor boss meetings. After the second floor boss had been defeated, Kirito had joined along with leveling me up.

* * *

**December 24****th****, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, Starting City.**

Back on the first floor once again, I thought to myself with a sigh. It seems that my entire life consist of me heading back to the 1st floor over and over again. Only this time it was not to help the beginners. No this time it was to complete a special quest in the first floor.

The more I thought about it, the more it did not make sense actually. Why does Santa Claus need help defeating The Grinch? They had been fighting with each other for years, with Santa always coming victorious. If only I could get out of this game and do some research about the Grinch…

I quickly snubbed that thought out, now is not the time to think about the real world.

The quest came from the second floor, from the bottom of one of the mountains. The NPC (Non-playable character) Santa Claus was there yesterday, and gave me the quest I was doing now. The Grinch apparently had acquired a power the Santa could not defeat, which resulted in Santa losing all his presents for the players. He then asked me to help him defeat The Grinch, which I accepted.

I quickly sent a message to Kirito, Asuna and Agil too see if they were interested. Unfortunately, they were busy on that day, clearing the third floor boss. I couldn't blame them, since I also wanted to get out quickly. My level was five levels below the average since I've been helping the other players. So I was alone on that day…

I decided to reach out to my other friends to see whether they were interested of not. To my surprise, there were four groups of players who were curious enough to party with me. The party was quickly formed in that way.

I reached the meeting point and was surprised to see half of my friends already there. As always, they brought their group along as well. I gave a quick hello to all of them before noticing something wrong.

Silica had come alone, which most likely meant that she became a solo player. A lone dagger was attached to her hip, with several hip pouches on her belt. Her face was emotionless, which worried me more. Another group had three players, Isabella, Sanderson and Gabriella.

Isabella had red eyes and long brown hair in a 'hime' haircut. She wore a white shirt and a red skirt with a rose Pattern. She used a One-Handed Short Spear which fitted her like a Two-Handed Spear. Sanderson had customized his hair to a dull purple cut and his hair covering one side of his face, probably to hide a gruesome scar from the two young girls. He used the basic sword and shield to help defend the two girls. Gabriella had also changed her hair color to ocean blue, her emerald eyes matching her clothes. She used a small dagger to help deal damage to the enemies.

"What happened to your party?" I questioned them. From their reaction, I had to say something bad happened. Sanderson spoke up after a long silence

"Fleet foot appeared, it took two of our members before we defeated it." He gave a short, brief reply. Isabella, just clung to him more tightly, still affected by the scene, I guessed. Gabriella was a lot less hyper as well, a tell-tale sign of it affecting her. She gave me a small smile, filled with sorrow. I patted her head before telling them.

"It wouldn't do to have a half filled party, want to join up with Silica and I?" They immediately responded with a nod. Sanderson quickly invited the two of us to their party. Soon after, the last party arrived.

After introducing one another, the three groups followed my lead to reach the destination of The Grinch, located at the same place the first boss was at. Clearing the monsters with little difficulty, we entered the first special boss battle.

The Grinch was about three times a player's size, equipped with a grabbling hook. It reminded me of Illfang, except blue in color. Giving an earth shattering roar, it advanced forward.

We engaged in battle rather quickly, my party and Richard's all-purpose party dealt damage to the boss while Jackson's party absorbed the blows. When their health had reached a low yellow, they switched with Richard's Party. With that, The Grinch's three life bars dropped to one before Richard switched with Jackson again.

During the switch, Santa also entered the room and engaged the boss. His red coat and dual blades engaging the Grinch's new equipped Talwar. Seeing that the NPC had no problems taking the damage from the Grinch, we all worked to deplete The Grinch's last life bar. Quickly, the boss's bar depleted to red.

The Grinch gave a terrible roar when his life reached red now. The force of the roar pushed our party back quite a bit. Dashing towards Santa, it gave a war cry as it swung down the Talwar.

Santa blocked the attack with his blades, forcing The Grinch back with astounding force; his blades glowed blue as Santa started striking it at blinding speed. The last bar of the Grinch depleted within seconds.

The Santa NPC now turned to us, giving us a cheerful smile as he offered us an item of our choosing as a reward. While the parties discussed among themselves, I went up to ask him a question.

"Could we wish for an item that could get a player out of the game?" Santa gave a sad smile before shaking his head.

"There is no such item, my dear…"

"What about an item that could resurrect someone?" Santa closed his eyes in though before reaching into his bag and pulling out a Rainbow-Colored Crystal.

"This is called Divine Stone of Returning Soul, it is able to revive any player who has died within ten seconds of the player, and the dead player must also be within ten meters from the holder. This is your gift from me." He replied with a cheerful smile. I received the gift with both hands, giving the NPC a happy smile.

"Thank you, I'm sure my friend would like it." Santa seems shocked by my words. He snatched the item from my hands quickly.

"A gift for your friend huh? I told you that the item is for yourself, not for your friend."

"But I do not desire any gift; I only want my friends to be alive as much as possible… I want a way to keep my friends happy."

This sentence seems to make Santa very serious. He dropped the revival crystal into the bag before pulling out a set of clothes.

"This set is a very unique piece of clothing. Any skill that you use will allow this clothing to give small buff to any players looking at you at the time your skill connects. It is called Costume of the Dragon Dancers" I took the red-and-black Garb with care, equipping it once deposited in my inventory.

"Thank you, Santa." I gave another smile to the NPC.

"Don't thank me! Your smile is thanks enough!" He replied with a cheerful smile. Shaking his hand, I walked back to the group.

"Have you decided on what to get? Each player would get a different item of their choice. It kinda made me wish that I brought a full raid party now…" I added in the joke with a grin. My hair has turned into a braid when I equipped the Headdress of the Dragon Dancers. It was the head of a dragon, with the mouth resting on my head. The hair band went in front of my ears, giving the illusion of a dragon eating my head from a side view. The Neck of the Draconic Headpiece was pinned to my braid.

My outfit had changed entirely; no longer was I wearing a simple orange shirt and brown pants. I now wore a red sports bra with a dragon scale pattern over my chainmail. My arms were covered by a brown cloth and a black band. The brown cloth was neatly split in the middle, showing my bronze bracers. The brown pants were now accompanied with a red waist cape shaped like claws, the cape itself split into five sections, all shaped like a dragon's tail. Below the pants were my Bronze Shin Guards, followed by a pair of red sandals.

The three parties stared at me for a long time, making me rather uncomfortable…

"What's wrong?" I fidgeted as I asked. Being stared at was something I never knew how to handle, it felt like I was being judged…

"Ahem… Nothing, you just look fashionable…" Sanderson gave a cough after he spoke, turning in a bright shade of crimson. The other three girls stared at him weirdly; Isabella then brought a question that made him rather flustered.

"Are you sick? You're turning rather red…"

"Ah! No! I'm not sick! It's just… well… err…" Sanderson's flustered faces made me laugh. I stopped myself to continue.

"Ahahaha… Well the items you ask for would be bound to you anyway, so having an item that would help you for the next few floors would do best…"

Each member left the room stronger, better equipped and happier.

* * *

**December 25****th****, Aincrad 4****th**** floor, Wolves Forest**

Another day alone again, I thought as I gave a sigh. The front line had cleared the third floor yesterday, despite the expression on their face. They know that their lives were at stake here, and they could not joke around like in the first floor boss. Due to this, no one died since the first floor boss.

While the third floor's theme was Forest, the fourth floor's theme was Jungle. Many of the monsters were animals living in jungles and forest. Occasionally there were Tribal Warriors who appear and attack the players. These Warriors were able to use sword skills like us, and constantly use them whenever they got a chance. This made them quite simple to defeat. Along with Tribal Warriors, there was also Tribal Marksman, who uses bows to fight us. They may have low health and poor accuracy, but I heard from Kirito that one arrow is able to lower your health by twenty percent. The boss of this floor was The Lion King, a agile lion who uses a range of clawing sword skills.

Currently I am the southern part of the forest, where forest wolves often appeared. I had heard stories of players being able to tame monsters. Nothing much is known about them other than if you killed too many of the monsters, you would not be able to tame it. Since I had never gone to the southern jungle, I might be able to find a way to tame a pack of four wolves.

Why wolves, you might ask? Well the Algorithms of the wolves were quite complex and they usually stuck together in a pack. Rather than just having one support monster, I was thinking about trying to work with four wolves. It would be difficult and all, but useful in the long run. I only knew that certain monsters could be tamed, most of them non-aggressive ones, so I was trying to find an aggressive one. Combined with my idea with the wolves, my first try would focus on the wolf packs.

So far, the Dire Wolves on the first floor, well as the Forest Wolves on the third floor could not be tamed. So my next try would be the Jungle Wolves on the fourth floor. Halfway while searching for one, I accidentally encountered the Christmas quest yesterday. So I took the time off to complete it, the reward seems fantastic and I could not wait to try it out once I could join the front line again. The clothes always gave positive results when I could strike the enemy consecutively, stacking the buffs one after another. Depending on the situation, it could increase damage or life regeneration. Once it made the defense of the tanks increase, most probably due to the fact that I intercepted the blow with the tank as well.

So far, the Jungle wolves were pretty hostile to me, not one of them hesitated to attack me when spotted. Looking at the time, I decide to give up after eating my Boar Meat that I got from the Frenzy Boars. Just then, I heard the growl of a pack of Jungle Wolves. Pulling out my Silver Fang, I was about to engage the wolves this time when all four of the slowly approached me, sniffing the air. They ran past me and starting attacking the Boar Meat that I dropped while standing up.

So that is their favorite food, I mused as I materialized more Boar Meat and handed it over to them. They tore through the meat with enthusiasm, before one of them, the alpha wolf I guessed, approached me and licked my hand. Well, if I had to lose some of my daily rations for the wolf companions, why not? I decided as I patted the wolf before leading the pack to the town, Elvas.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter focus more on developing her character, such as her clothes and her familiars. Hopefully this is not overpowered… Review please? Thanks for reviewing if you do, thanks for reading if you don't. I kept laughing when I tried imagining Santa Claus dual wielding against the Grinch… ha-ha… it's just too funny. Just because Kirito can dual wield doesn't mean monsters can't, like Katana skills. Right?**

**Monica's Current Stats (25/12/2022)**

Level: 12

Strength: 12

Agility: 24

Health: 630/630 hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv 18, Battle Healing Lv 26 (180 hp per 10 seconds), Familiar Communication Lv1.

Equipment: Steel Chainmail +3 (2Q, 1D), Bronze Bracer +1 (1D), Bronze Shin Guards +2 (2D) Silver Fang +3 (1S, 2Q).


	7. Reflections and Regrets

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. Any character not found in the original novel belongs to me though!**

**A/N: the novel gives very little information about the floors, you know? Kind of hard to work out some things: Kirito can have 14,500 hp at level 78 and yet his battle healing can only heal 600 hp per second? That would mean that at level 78, he has a level 60 Battle recovery… And I just noticed it…. Bah... **

**I'm editing all previous chapters to change this error. Also, equipment would definitely give some health since one would need 708 points in strength for at least 14.5k hp at lv78.**

Monica's stats (1/2/2023)

Level: 20

Strength: 20

Agility: 40

Health/Base: 2360/822hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv63, Battle Healing Lv294 (210hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv54, Familiar Recovery Lv48

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Mithril Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q):HP+700, reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 400+100

Mithril Bracers +3 (2D, 1Q): HP+300, reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 350+100

Mithril Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): HP+300, reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 350+100

Queen's Dagger +3 (2Q, 1D): 150-160dmg, Strength+3 and Agility+4, no speed reduction due to 2Q enhancement. Durability: 350 (+50 from 1D enhancement)

**A/N: That's a wrap! Now on to the story! ... Yes, Monica is now forced to use a dagger…**

**Chapter 6: Reflections and Regrets**

* * *

**1****st**** February 2023, Aincrad 8****th**** floor, Wood Elf's outpost**

"Thinker! Switch!" I yelled to Thinker as I advanced forward, Dagger posed for executing the skill, Critical X. The dark knife glowed an unearthly white as I struck the Wood Elf twice in the head, forming an 'X' in the middle of his face. The female elf screamed in agony as she shattered into polygons.

"Thanks for the save, Monica." Thinker patted my back as he watched his health regenerate.

"We wouldn't have so much trouble if we weren't with Kibaou…" I muttered while staring at his four-man team, engaged in combat with another pair of Wood Elf Warriors. His team constantly lured the elves to my back when they thought I wasn't looking, resulting with Thinker, our guild leader, running in to save me. It was highly annoying and irritating, trying to avenge Diabel like this. Thinker gave me a sad smile as he moves off to attack another Wood Elf.

"Damn it! Kibaou! Do something with the holes of your party!" I bellowed at the four-man group.

"Gives us some time, lady! We're not used to having a four-man group, okay!" He yelled an excuse while I stabbed a male Wood Elf Warrior in the chest before executing Critical X on him.

I growled as another Wood Elf Warrior slashed me from behind. Kibaou's a prick; I mentally reminded myself this as I spun around to engage the elf in combat.

After defeating him in combat, I went to check on my party members. Thinker seems to be doing fine, I concluded as he blocked the sword skill with his shield. My wolves seem to be doing fine as well, tearing elf after elf in to pieces. Looking at Kibaou's party, I was surprised to see their formation completely messed up; two of them were running to me while the others were sprawled on the floor, fearfully looking at the white-haired Elven Officer.

I sighed as I dashed in to intercept the Officer's sword with my dagger before punching him in the stomach with my other hand. Using the impact from the interception, I swiftly swung down of plunge the dark dagger into the Elf's head.

Yanking the weapon out of the male's skull, I turned around to see the frightened expression of Kibaou.

"Really… Then I think you should go back to your six man party…" I gave a cheerful sigh this time while watching Kibaou exploded into a furious string of swears.

* * *

**2****nd**** February 2023, Aincrad 7****th**** floor, Tsukinomo.**

Recalling that memory in my dreams always ends with me gasping for breath from laughing so much. Really, Kibaou had given such an unmanly scream when he fell down from the intimidation of the Field Boss there. Thinking like that caused my laughter to act up again. After calming myself down, I bit off a portion of the Boar's Meat I had cooked the day before while passing some of it to my familiars. This place had such a serene atmosphere, with monsters acting like NPCs. Not many people realized this, too focused on clearing the next floor. Perhaps when the next line of adventurers arrived here to train, would they realize it? I finished the rest of the meat as the wolves looked at me for guidance.

"Let's go…" I simply smiled as I left the tree house.

I nicknamed the village of the seventh floor 'Monster' Village when the clearers arrived from defeating the sixth floor boss, The Ravenous Vulture. Despite the ongoing war since the third floor, the village was completely unharmed. Wood Elf Warriors chatted casually with Dark Elf Rangers while Tribal Warriors sold items. It was completely different from the animosity between the Elves, where the two armies constantly clashed against one another. The place reminded me of the game I played a decade ago, RaiderZ. There was one place in that game where the players had to choose which side to join as well, causing a rift between those who chose the Mad-Eye Trolls and those who chose the White-Yeti Ogres.

This series of floors has also caused a rift between the players, and politics have started going on in the guilds. My guild, MMO Today, was no exception. Compared to the past where everyone listened to Thinker, now the other leaders constantly forces him to sit at the guild hall, trying to get people to see eye to eye. Why are people so power hungry? I wondered while watching the battles at the Monster Arena. The player swiftly cut down the four lions that surrounded him, using both sword and shield to block and stab the opponents. I could not help but applaud.

This man, dressed fully in red armor, continued to cut down the competition easily, decimating the set up of the monsters. It was as if he knew the patterns of the monsters and how to counter them. But before he reached the 35th round, he opted out of the Gauntlet, teleporting the man out of the arena. I left the Coliseum to find this man, if this man could observe the patterns of the monsters in the monster arena so easily, he could also pinpoint weak spots and weakness of the floor bosses at the front line!

I found him heading towards the tavern, though it was more like I crashed into him. Flinching in pain, I took his hand while getting up.

"Sorry for bumping into you like that." I apologized to him. He seems surprised to find me here.

"Oh… It wasn't a problem, not like my health could decrease here anyway." He replied as he gave a serious look. Dusting myself, I offered a proposal for him.

"I saw your performance at the Arena; you could immediately pick out their patterns and weak spots in the arena so quickly. Why not join the front lines?" On hearing the word 'front lines' he was uncomfortable immediately.

"Oh, it's because I am not certain whether my level was acceptable for the front lines. I'm level twenty five." Level twenty five!? He was at the same level as Kirito yet he was uncertain about joining them?

"Nonsense! That level is way higher than the average level, you can definitely join us!" I cheerfully replied while masking my shock. The surprised face of his was so cute!

"Really? Do you know when the next meeting is held?" He demanded, excited. Trying to calm him down, I said.

"Most likely when they are two floors below the boss."

He visibly deflated after hearing that.

"Don't-Don't worry! Why not party up first so that I can if you can help out with clearing the front lines?" I suggested when I saw his reaction to my first statement. I was feeling rather bad for getting his hopes up.

"Really?"

"Sure! Even though I was the one who offer, I still need to see how good you are at fighting, can you work in a team?" He seems to ponder for a moment before accepting my invitation.

"The floor we are going to is floor nine; we are going to do a bit of mapping, alright?"

"Do we have a party to go with?"

"Of course! I was going to do some mapping today with my other friends. But we have a vacant slot for people to take. Do you know the name of the village at floor nine?" I asked while dragging him

"That would be… Narakuni… Right?" I just gave him the face that said 'are you serious?'

"No, it's Serof. Where the heck is Narakuni anyway?"

* * *

**2****nd**** February 2023, Aincrad 9****th**** floor, Orc's Tower 17****th**** floor.**

Monica

Narakuni is the village at the 10th floor! How'd you know that name!?

Kirito

I frowned when I received the message in after mapping. It was my fault to send it before entering the boss tower anyway. The man, Heathcliff found the stairs to the eighteenth and nineteenth floor quite quickly when we started to map. He was really observant; pointing out traps or secret areas, once he even found a passageway what we thought was a dead end. Heathcliff was a beta tester, I concluded safely after receiving that message.

Reaching the teleport gates, I teleported to the seventh floor again about to call it a day when I saw a male Wood Elf Warrior slumped under a tree, arrows protruding out of his body. From the puddle of blood under him, I could immediately deduce that it was a quest.

In this game, you cannot bleed…

"Are you okay?" On hearing that, the male's eye fluttered open. His lips parted to pronounce one word.

"Help…"

Immediately after that, his eyes closed again. A notification appeared on my UI.

_Bring the collapsed elf to Ooljee_

I half dragged, half carried the male into the village and to the potions merchant. On seeing the NPC, she asked a question while heading to get some potions.

"What happened?"

"I found him collapsed outside the place, brought him here since he is badly injured."

The next few moments were set about to recover the fallen warrior's health. When his health reached yellow, he finally opened his eyes. Seeing me, he tried to draw his sword, only to find that he does not have it. Ooljee scoffed at him.

"Don't fight in the village, you war-mongering elf."

Still wary of me, he asked Ooljee.

"Where am I?"

"You're in Tsukinomo, the neutral city. "

"I thank you for your help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am leaving fo-."

"You're not leaving until you've paid me." Ooljee interrupted him. He finally looked at her, saw what she was, and growled.

Ooljee was a female Dark Elf; Short silver hair and dark skin, dressed in white robes with blue forest pattern. Seeing his anger, she retorted.

"I'd told you that this place was a neutral village, which applies to the Wood Elves and Dark Elves. No fighting in the-"The Wood Elf tackled her, fist ready to pummel her. As she landed on the floor, she used the momentum to flip the male over. They recovered at the same time, circling one another.

The other NPCs as well as some players started gathering round to see the fight in the village. It was clearly designed to let Ooljee win. Every attack made by him was countered by one of her strikes. The male's health soon depleted to red and he could not stand anymore.

Ooljee straddle him, fist ready to punch him should he resist. Looking for a way out and finding none, the Wood Elf Warrior relaxed in resignation. Ooljee got off him and offer him a hand, which he brushed off as he stood up.

"The fight is not over…" He seethed at her. She smirked as she crossed her arms, as if challenging him. Gritting his teeth, he took a step forward, getting his face socked by a right hook from Ooljee. Dazed, he crashed onto the floor, rubbing his cheeks.

"It's been a long time since I did that to anyone…Now may I know your name?"

He contemplated for a moment before nodding his head.

"Anshuman. My name's Anshuman." He replied in turn as he got back up.

"Right, Anshuman. Don't go around attacking the Dark Elves like so, some of the Wood Elves may be offended by that." She warned and slapped his shoulder before going back into her stall. The crowd dispersed after that. Anshuman shook his head before walking the opposite direction of her.

The only that went into my mind was… What the heck?

Quest Complete

EHHH!?

* * *

**6****th**** February, Aincrad 8****th**** floor, Wood Elves' Camp.**

I tried to stifle a yawn while waiting for the quest to start. While I was quite shocked from the first quest, it turned out to span a few more quests. The Wood Elf Warrior Anshuman started coming back more and more often to the village, sometimes rather depressed, other times in thought.

The 'quests' he received from the Wood Elves Capital were unreasonable supplies from the monsters around floor 8, where he was located at. Most of the mobs needed a party of two minimum to kill. Since it was a solo quest for me, I ended up have a hard time with the fights, but it did help me improve my skills.

One of them was the Tribal Wolves in floor seven; I almost got killed while fighting them on the first try. If Klein's party did not find me at that time, I wouldn't be here.

"Thanks for the save."

"Whoa, Monica, is that you? You look so different now!"

"Ah… Yeah… It's a good piece of clothing with a unique effect… Hey-ya, Dale, Kuni, Dyna, Issin, Harry. Wish we'd met on better circumstances."

"What were you thinking? Taking on the wolves alone? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Harry yelled at me.

"Ah… I needed to do it for a quest, and no one could help me at that time…"

"Klein-sama! A damsel requires assistance! What should we do?" Dale dramatically queried his guild leader. Klein acted deep in thought, before proclaiming.

"We shall help the lady, of course! Our training can wait!"

The party cheered on hearing that, and I could not help but giggle at their theatrics.

"I'm no lady in distress… But I could really use some help…" I replied after calming down.

Thanks to them, I managed to cut some time in completing the quest. Anshuman had decided to leave the battlefield after that quest, which brings us to where we are.

He told us to meet at the entrance of the Wood Elves' Camp at sunrise, meaning seven o'clock. And he is planning to do a little bit of sabotage before leaving.

We arrived at six-thirty in the morning and waited for the fireworks. Before long a loud explosion could be heard, and sprung into action.

We ran through the camp, slaughtering the NPCs disoriented by the blast. One after another, they collapsed, until we reached Anshuman.

Giving a nod of acknowledgement, he started leading us to Tsukinomo, killing Wood Elf Warrior after Wood Elf Warrior. However, a few minutes after leaving the camp, we encountered a group of Dark Elf Warriors, that's where things got complicated.

Seeing a Wood Elf with us, they thought we were betraying them and attacked us. Reasoning with them was not an option apparently, and we hoped that killing those NPCs did not cause any distrust from our faction.

Anshuman made it to Tsuyinomo safely, but we received another quest from the Dark Elves now.

Damn it… When would the chain quest end!

* * *

**9****th**** February, Aincrad 9****th**** floor, Ogre Lord's Throne**

I glanced at the Queen's Dagger held in my left hip. Now I really want to throw it away… The Dark Elf Queen had me do all sorts of uninteresting chores for the next few chain quest before sending me in to fight the King's Bodyguard before she forgave me. I was really furious for such stupid filler quest when that happened. Why could she just send me in earlier! The Bodyguard was not that hard to defeat now compared to when I did it for the Queen's Dagger. When I find a Katar better than this weapon, I am going to sell it off…

The first time was a lot harder since my weapon could not do Damage over Time.. Now with the Queen's Dagger smeared with Level 5 Poison, it was a breeze. Klein's party distracted the Flag Boss while I dealt enough damage to finish it off. Just like that, the Dark Elf Queen forgave me, rewarding me with a decent amount of experience points along with a Elven Gem.

The gem summons a Dark Elf familiar for the user. Unlike the other AIs who knew what to do, this one did not know anything. I had to start teach it how to use sword skills and what not. She had a similar interface to mine, and could equip any weapons given to her. Omega, the alpha wolf, did not like her initially, but sooner or later he warmed up to her. When he did, so did the other wolves.

My tree house have suddenly become a family of AIs, the Dark Elf Prism being the support of my character with her Elven Bow while the four wolves assisted my in taking damage. In combat they are extremely useful, but taking care of them is extremely annoying!

"Monica-san?" Prism worriedly whispered to me. "Are you ready?"

"Huh… Oh Yeah…" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Alright then… Let's go." Heathcliff declared as he entered the room. Kirito, Asuna, Prism and I followed in shortly.

Ninth of February, eight-thirty in the afternoon, the ninth floor was cleared with minimal death. But among them was Prism… I… I regretted bringing her to the boss raid… Wish I could bring her back, but… there's no way to do that at until the forty-seventh floor…By then it will be too late to save her.

* * *

**9****th**** February, Aincrad 10****th**** floor, Unknown location.**

A red figure stood at the centre of the area, holding a flower in his left hand and a pearl-colored earring in his right. Pouring a drop of liquid of the flower, the jewel glowed a bright white before a dark skinned female stood next to him.

"Who… Who are you! Where's Monica! I-I need to get back to her!" The female screeched while the figure manipulated his user interface. She suddenly felt drowsy, collapsing once she realized what he did.

"Well… a bottom-up AI huh? You'll be useful for the final encounter…" The figure murmered as he teleported away with the girl.

* * *

**A/N: Unoriginality to the max… I failed in this chapter… The next one would be better! I promise! 2023 really has nothing good for me to do... T_T**

**Monica's Stats: 31/10/2023**

Level: 49

Strength: 49

Agility: 98

Health/Base: 10138/1542hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv254, Battle Healing Lv750 (530hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv232, Familiar Recovery Lv224, Night Vision Lv184, Acrobatics Lv165

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q): Strength+40 (800+100hp), reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 800+100. HP+3500

Silver Bracers +2 (1D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+50hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+50. HP+1500

Dragonian Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 550+100. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on the equipment. HP+1600

Howling Gale (Katar) +6 (2S, 2D, 2Q): 660-670+20dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+100

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Have a sneak peek at the next chapter.**

"_What the-? I didn't add this before…" I gasped as I pressed the recent skill added to my list._

"_Dagger Skill? Not likely… Familiar Communication and Recovery? Perhaps, but there are other players who have it… Maybe both of them?" I mused while my wolves gathered around me, trying to tell me something… Wait, tell me something?_

"_Maybe something to do with what items I had? Not possible, far as I know, I have no special items yet other than my weapon."_

"_What was that?" Kirito yelled at me, I shrugged._

"_I think it's better not to let anyone know of this until we figured out what are the conditions."_

"_Want to try it out?" I cautiously asked while sending the duel invitation._


	8. Diamond of Uniqueness

**Me: I don't want to do disclaimers this time… Monica!**

**Monica appears in a flash of blue light**

**Monica: Where am I? I'm still in the death game, aren't I?**

**Me: You're here to do disclaimer this time!**

**Monica gives a sigh of frustration**

**Monica: Do I have to?**

**Me: Please? I need to check the Sword Art Wikia for inconsistencies.**

**Bznboy walks off**

**Monica: Haa… Fine… Bznboy does not own Sword Art Online or their characters. He owns the characters that do not appear in the original light novel only.**

**You can hear Bznboy screaming something…**

"**WHY IS SAO's SYSTEM FILLED WITH INCONSISTENCIES?!"**

**Monica's Stats: 27/5/2023**

Level: 38

Strength: 38

Agility: 76

Health/Base: 6964/1254hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv254, Battle Healing Lv750 (530hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv232, Familiar Recovery Lv224, Night Vision Lv184, Acrobatics Lv165

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Bronze Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q): Strength+30 (600+100hp), reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 800+100. HP+1500

Silver Bracers +2 (1D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+50hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+50. HP+700

Dragonian Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 550+100. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on the equipment. HP+1600

Howling Gale (Katar) +4 (1S, 1D, 2Q): 660-670+10dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+50

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Monica: I hope he can get over it soon… He's mature most of the time… I think? Eh… There would be large amount of time skipped in this chapter; I hope you would not mind. ^.^ **

**Chapter 7: Diamond of Uniqueness.**

* * *

**27****th**** May 2023, Aincrad 25****th**** floor, underground**

"I think the higher ups were hasty in their decision... Heck they didn't even think that it might be false…" I replied while peering scanning the room for any signs of the boss. From the information, the twenty-fifth floor boss was a worm that moved about under us while spitting out dirt balls that do not deal much damage. When it reached the guild managers of MMOToday, Kibaou had rounded up the highest leveled players of MMOToday to defeat the floor's boss. That included Thinker, Corbatz, Sanderson and me. Kibaou claimed that he was not strong enough to fight the floor boss after meeting us at the floor boss, and had placed me in charge of the operation.

I was pretty shocked when that happened, something was up with him. He had been doing most of the organization alone, and then suddenly putting me in charge of it? That was not like him…

It was a set-up, I concluded as I faced the group. He wants me out of MMOToday. Either I die in this operation, or I fail the objective of this operation.

Looking at the twenty other players, I told them that this operation was a ploy and our objective was actually to gather information on the boss for the front line. This caused an spark of outrage from the raiding group, demanding the reason.

"Look here!" I had demanded, "Our party is less than a full raid, what are the chances we have at defeating the boss." Shouts of 'we have information' or 'we are the strongest' filled my ears as I continued.

"That info is faked; No one knows how the real boss really is. We'd just reached the floor today, and suddenly someone gives us the information of the twenty fifth boss? The beta tester only has information on the first ten floors, nothing more, nothing less! You say that we are the strongest, but it would still take a full raid of players to completely defeat the boss." The shouting now escalates higher, anger and fear in their replies. Pausing to regain my breath, I kept on going.

"It doesn't matter if you hate me. After this I will be leaving the guild, Kibaou has made it so. We are just going in to fight against the boss. Once our health reaches yellow, we make our way out. Is that clear?"

Our raiding party was extremely tensed as we entered into the boss room.

"Damn… You were right… this does not fit the information at all…" Sanderson muttered while we sneaked into the room.

"Be on your guard everyone, the boss could be anywhere." I yelled across the room. Sounds of acknowledgement could be heard from most of the members.

Where could it be…? Above us? Or behind us? I thought while scanning the room once again. There were no signs of any boss, a spectral boss, maybe? Suddenly, my body was forced downwards by a pair of legs.

"Ah- Aaaargh!" I screamed as the legs pressed down on me. Almost instantly, my hit points were yellow. Everyone had started hammering on the boss after the initial shock. I was sent flying to the ceiling of the room when the boss gave a cry of agony. My health dropped even more when I landed, the air forced out of my lungs.

"Get out of here now!" I immediately yelled after the feeling of being winded disappeared. The retreat was a catastrophic one, people pushing each other out of the way. My party stayed behind to protect me.

The giant swung it clubs around, sending half of the group into the air. I gritted my teeth as I downed a potion.

"Let's cause a distraction, guys."

Our party of six plunged our weapons into the leg of the giant, decreasing its life by a small fraction. The titan gave a roar which sent us flying backwards.

"The giant should have a harder time killing us now." I smirked as I pulled back to the walls. However, to my horror, the giant sped up.

"You got to be kidding me." I yelped in horror. We went in again to try another distraction.

Sounds of shattering could be heard despite our vain attempts of distracting it. We quickly made it out before we joined them.

"So… how many left?" I questioned once I regained my breath. Sanderson pulled out the map and scanned it.

"A dozen are gone…" He replied, a short silence in shock and in memory of the twelve before I started walking out of the tower.

"We did our job the best we could… Let's mourn them somewhere else." I softly spoke.

True to my word, the next day I was asked to report the operation, and was voted out of the guild by the managers. I kept a poker face as I went through the process, one thing in my mind.

What are you up to, Kibaou…?

* * *

**27****th**** October 2023, Aincrad 40****th**** floor, Hades' Palace.**

As the forty remaining members of the raid party watched Hades the Underworld God fell. Smiles were exchanged between each of us. Not one member moved a muscle, hoping that nothing new appeared.

When the congratulations message appeared, all of us gave a sigh of relief. Looking at the results of the battle, I was quite surprised to see a level up for me. Glancing at Kirito's results, I compared our levels.

While I had just reached level fifty, Kirito had reached level sixty in this battle. I gaped at the difference in our level. I guess constantly teaching the other players on how to survive in this world had some negative consequence. Noting my shocked expression, Kirito asked.

"What's wrong?"

"Your level is ten levels higher than me… Ten… Levels…" I spoke what my mind was thinking. Hearing what I said, he started looking at the rest of the squad while speaking in fragmented sentences.

"Well…Ahh…It's better… You know… Ehh… Soloing… Haa… Shall we train together later then?" He gave a dejected sigh before suggesting.

"You would? Thanks you so much!" I squeal in delight. It would be a nice to compare the difference in strength between the strongest and myself.

"We'll go after we opened the teleport gates." Kirito whispered before we ascended the stairs.

The forty-first floor had no noticeable change in atmosphere, unlike the eleventh, twenty-first and thirty-first floors. Its theme is similar to the previous floor, meaning that it might be the theme of 'coming out of the ground' for the next few floors.

The band of forty players moved swiftly towards the town, chattering in soft voices.

* * *

**27****th**** October, Aincrad 41****st**** floor, Solestia's Teleport gates.**

Watching the gates turning blue always made me feel proud, since we are getting one step closer towards the end of the game. As the players started flooding into the city, Kirito pulled me towards the entrance of the city.

"No time better than the present, right? Let's get a taste of this floor's monsters!" Kirito exclaimed.

"Eh! Waait… we've just unlocked a new skill slot you know? Why not choose a skill first?" I complained while being dragged.

"Because the others may get our spot first." Kirito cheerfully replied as we started speeding up. My jungle wolves trailing on my heels

We ran for about a few minutes before he stopped. Pointing at the nearest monster, he asked.

"What kind of monsters do you think they are?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're the one with the identification skill…" I deadpanned at his question.

"Oh, sharp as always, Monica-san. They are called Bull Spiders, at the level of forty four." He answered while drawing out his sword. Funnily enough, they looked more like bulls with six legs rather than spiders with bull horns…

"Kayaba have a bad naming sense… Calling bulls with six legs Bull Spiders, not Bull Ant…" I muttered. Pulling up the skill screen while Kirito attacked the monsters, I browsed through the available skills, trying to find an appropriate skill for my character. Recently, the small speed reduction have been hindering me, so I was deciding for either Heavy Metal Equipment or Light Metal Equipment since I constantly use a chainmail with metal bracers and shinguards.

But I wear more Heavy Metal Armor than Light Metal Armor, shouldn't I use Heavy Metal Armor skill then? I mused while pressing on the skill. After a long time of debating with myself, I dragged the Heavy Metal Armor skill into my new skill slot.

Now I have One-Handed Dagger, Battle Healing, Familiar Communication and Recovery, Night Vision, Acrobatics and Heavy Metal Equipment. I observed, pointing at each of the symbols. Wait, I just noticed that I have an extra skill that I did not add.

"What the-? I didn't add this before…" I gasped as I pressed the recent skill added to my list.

The skill's name was called Beast Master, no text information or details added to it. pressing it reveals two skills in the category, Familiar Understanding and Spiritual Link. Like the new skill, no text was given to them as well. I immediately scanned my skill list, but there was nothing I had other than Beast Master that other players had.

"Dagger Skill? Not likely… Familiar Communication and Recovery? Perhaps, but there are other players who have it… Maybe both of them?" I wondered while my wolves gathered around me, trying to tell me something… Wait, tell me something?

"Kirito, we are surrounded…" I spoke up without realizing it. Kirito stared at me as if I had two heads now.

"How could you tell? My Searching skill does not show any monsters surrounding us."

"Damn… The monsters behind us are stronger than the ones in front, called Hell Spiders, they… are above us…" I panted from the information overload from the four wolves. Each of their voices is hard to make out, but tells almost the same thing; that we are surrounded by the Bull Spiders in front and the Hell Spiders behind us. It felt like my head was being smacked around, since the spiders around us are also conversing.

"Either way… We need to move forward… or we might die…" I grabbed my head while trying not to pass out, at the same time I was trying to think of what made the extra skill appear.

"Maybe something to do with what items I had? Not possible, far as I know, I have no special items yet other than my weapon." I heard my mouth voicing out my thoughts now while I started moving forward.

"What are you talking about, Monica? Are you okay?" Kirito asked rather warily as he approached me. Without thinking, I pushed him backwards.

A Hell Spider dropped in front of us, at the spot we were at a moment ago, drawing Howling Gale in a smooth motion; I executed Rapid Bite on it without thinking.

The four wolves surrounded the hell spider, using their claws to tear the insect apart.

Damn it, use your Ferocious Bite already, I commented mentally. At the moment, all four of their fangs glowed a dark red and they sank their teeth into the Hell Spider behind me.

"What the… all four at the same time? What is going on…" Kirito panicked as he continued slicing spider after spider. By the time we managed to defeat all the spiders around me, everything was blurry to me. I placed my hand on Kirito shoulder, urging him to head back to the town. Kirito seems to notice that I kept stumbling despite my best efforts not to, and demanded when the last time I slept was. I scrunched up my face in thought before answering.

"I got a couple of hours sleep most of the time…"

"Monica… you're worse than Asuna before I met her…" Kirito sighed while half carrying, half dragging me to Solestia.

"Really? All I know about her is that she pushes the Knight of Blood Oath to train as hard as they could… Was she doing to same as back then?" I thought out loud. Giving a small laugh, he dryly replied.

"She at least sleeps for three to four hours a day, even though she camps near the dungeons for training." I could not really imagine her doing that though…

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, that's how I met her anyway…" He replied with a cheerful laugh.

"By the way, what was that?"

"What was what?"

"How did you know that we were surrounded? Or that they were Hell Spiders?"

"I really don't want to talk about it now… When I've recovered from the fatigue, I'll tell you… It's something regarding an extra skill I have…"

"Huh… Like Martial Arts? When did you get it?"

"It just popped up today…"

"Really, no idea on the conditions to make it appear?" He replied as we entered an inn. Paying for a room, we entered our room together.

"None at all… My skills were the Dagger, Healing, Familiar Stuff, Night vision and Acrobats… I don't think they really added up to a Beast Master Skill…"

"I agree with that." Kirito opened up his menu, and moved it to his skills as well. He froze up for a moment, and then faced me. We had a long moment of silence.

"I think you're not the only one with an unknown skill…" He finally spoke, revealing his own unknown skill.

Dual Blades, a skill that allows you to dual wield swords, from the name of the skill…

What is going on? Did everyone in the server get their own unique skills? Or is it just a number of us? What are the conditions for acquiring the skills? A number of questions ran though my mind, making me grabs my head in pain again. Kirito closed the menu before speaking seriously.

"I think it's better not to let anyone know of this until we figured out what are the conditions."

"Un…" I moaned in agreement before the darkness took me…

* * *

**28th October 2023, Aincrad 40****th**** floor, Hades Palace.**

"I still don't understand why you want to bring me here…" Kirito muttered as we descended the stairs to the place where we fought against Hades.

"Is the safest place where no one would come anymore, since nobody goes to the boss towers after it is cleared… we can duel here without anyone caring." I replied as we reached the arena. Keeping ourselves a good five hundred metres away from each other, I opened up the menu.

"So…Want to try it out?" I cautiously asked while sending the duel invitation. He accepted it, equipping the silver sword we bought yesterday for this purpose. The first person to land a clean strike wins the duel.

As the timer counted down to zero, both of us tensed up, trying to read each other move. The voices of the wolves helped with my analysis with his stance, observing from a distance. Spiritual Link cause me to share damage between the wolves and me, giving both an advantage and a disadvantage, I can share my thoughts with the wolves, who would be able to 'reply' to their best understanding. As such, my life would take a longer time to decrease, but I also take damage if my familiars get injured.

Thirty seconds left till the duel started.

Kirito is unfamiliar to the ideal of dual wielding, as seen from his posture. His two hands are awkwardly at his sides, one facing me while the other is behind him. The tension on his feet makes him look as if he is intending to charge… Could it be?

Ten seconds…

Five…

Three…

Two…

One…

Whoosh!

I barely followed his movement with my eyes, blocking his first strike by using my bracers. Pushing him back, I activated a basic dagger skill, Thrust.

Kirito blocked the skill perfectly, but could not retaliate in that split freeze frame each skill has. I swung my Kater to the right to block his left sword, while using my left arm to punch Kirito in the chest. Kirito stumbled back from the force, but the attack not considered a clean strike. Spinning around, I extended my right foot to catch him in the chest.

Seeing the oncoming kick, he leaned backwards to avoid it, then sprung from to counter attack. The first strike came from his right sword, blocking it with my left bracer. Next came a thrust from his left sword, which I intercepted with my Katar. Caught in a dead lock, both of us struggled for an advantage, but the odds were in his favor. I intentionally gave way to his force, knocking him off balance for a moment before kneeing him in the stomach to send him over me. Giving each other a few moment to recover, the exchanged had decreased my life by ten percent while his had decreased by only five.

"You'd be a deadly opponent in duels in the future… extremely fast reactions and speed, its going to be hard for me to beat that." I complimented him, ready for another bout. While it seems that I was at a disadvantage, I just needed him to leave himself open for me to strike him.

"That passive skill of yours is too annoying…" He taunted back while running forward, both blades glowing in light green.

The first skill of Dual Blades, Quick Draw: An extremely fast skill that does a small amount of damage.

I crossed my arms a little too late. The attack connects with my chain mail.

Winner: Kirito

"You always use your speed to defeat your opponents huh?" I exclaimed before I landed on my backside. Kirito merely smiled from that comment.

"You are also special, Monica… You can lead a group of players against the floor bosses. I can't take that kind of responsibility."

"Oh please, it's not that special. You are a better candidate than me… I'm just a back-up leader." I blushed from the comment. Not many people usually complimented me.

"No, you're better at that. If I was even half as good as you say, I would have led Klein and his party out on the first day… I couldn't even save my last guild…" That caught my attention; Kirito joined a guild that disappeared?

"What's their name? How did they die?"

"The Black Cats of the Moonlit Night was a group of players from the same school and club. I was the first player outside their circle, but quickly got segregated into the group. Two months ago, the entire guild except for the leader went to farm for col." By this time, tears were staining his face. I quickly told him that he did not need to tell me.

"Nah… I should. Or you might be curious… We decided that we would try one of the higher leveled floors, but fell into a trap. Despite me warning them that it may be a trap, they opened it anyway. Everyone except for me died in that battle, with the guild leader jumping off Aincrad when I told him about the incident…" Trying to stop his tears from flowing, he rubbed his eyes.

"I couldn't even save them, despite my level… If I can't even protect a team of five, how can I protect a raiding party? That's why I never went to take up the position of a raid leader, leaving that to Heathcliff, Asuna… and even you… I would not be able to take the pressure…" I hugged him tightly while letting him release his agony, stroking his back while replying to him.

"You may be the strongest, but it's impossible to protect everyone by yourself…its impossible… Since you cannot protect each of them individually, you are forced to protect them as a group… And…" I gripped him slightly harder, "group decisions will always come at someone's sacrifice. You did your best to protect everyone, even though you failed… but this is the front line we are talking about, we are not talking about a dungeon further away from the frontlines, but closer… And sometimes, it's better to direct them to fight than to protect everyone…we need to remember that…"

* * *

**Me: *yawns* hello… hoped you enjoyed reading the story… **

**Monica's stats (28/10/2023)**

Level: 50

Strength: 50

Agility: 100

Health/Base: 10162/1542hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv254, Battle Healing Lv750 (530hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv232, Familiar Recovery Lv224, Night Vision Lv184, Acrobatics Lv165, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv1, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv1

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q): Strength+40 (800+100hp), reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 800+100. HP+3500

Silver Bracers +2 (1D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+50hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+50. HP+1500

Dragonian Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 550+100. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on the equipment. HP+1600

Howling Gale (Katar) +6 (2S, 2D, 2Q): 660-670+20dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+100

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3


	9. Decapitated Reindeer

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. I only own this story and Monica. **

**Monica: Good to see you back in action.**

**Me: The anime has ended…**

**Monica: I know, but there might be a second season you know?**

**Me: Not likely… haa…**

**Monica's stats (24/12/2023)**

Level: 59

Strength: 59

Agility: 118

Health/Base: 10 678/1758hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv367, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv334, Familiar Recovery Lv353, Night Vision Lv314, Acrobatics Lv385, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv286, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv201

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+5 (3D, 2Q): Strength+40 (800+150hp), reduces speed by 5-2%. Durability: 800+150, HP+3500. 2/10 Upgrades remaining.

Silver Bracers +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+100, HP+1500. 3/10 Upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +9 (6D, 3Q): Strength +20 (400+300hp), reduces speed by 6-3%. Durability: 550+300. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. 3/20 Upgrades remaining

Howling Gale (Katar) +16 (7S, 7D, 2Q): 660-670+70dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+350. 28/50 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 8: Decapitated Reindeer**

**A large amount of editing has been done since Kent Rigel's Review. He stated that this chapter needed a large amount of improvement while asking me to improve several parts.**

* * *

**24****th**** December 2023, Aincrad 49****th**** Floor, Myugen's Teleport Gates.**

I leant against the teleport gates of Myugen, scanning the crowd of any signs of Kirito. Klein just informed me that Kirito is planning something suicidal, and we are going to prevent him from doing something that crazy. The Jungle Wolves familiar I had were sniffing the air, their searching skills looking for Kirito.

After finding out about the extra skills we had, both I had asked around if any players had exhibited unique abilities with other players. I know that Klein had the Katana extra skills, as did half of his guild. But one of the Knights of Blood Oath players had mention that Heathcliff could alternate his sword and skill for offense and defense. Since I had never used a shield before, I asked if there were any skills that shield-users could use. To my surprise, there wasn't any.

Heathcliff might have found an extra skill, it was possible. But now my priority is to stop Kirito.

Scanning the crowd again, I held in a urge to sigh. You would have thought that finding a black-haired swordsman in black in this crowd of colors would be easy, but there were times I thought I saw Kirito, only to find another player.

"Teleport, Mishe."

I immediately cursed and turned around. The black swordsman was glowing blue and disappearing from the map.

Gritting my teeth, I repeated the same words he had just spoken, and gave chase. Compared to the forty-ninth floor, this place was deserted. I started stalking the boy as he made his way to his destination, contacting Klein whenever he reached an intersection.

Kirito entered the Lost Forest, heading towards the centre of it. Klein and the others had teleported into the thirty-fifth floor, and now started making their way to me.

The boy moved through the forest like it was his home, making turns without looking. Twice, his came into contact with the monsters, letting them hit him before his started fighting back.

Whatever that happened to Kirito to make him lose awareness of where he is? I hope he doesn't space out in the middle of battle.

He finally reached an extremely big tree when Klein and his guild found us.

"...Were you following me?" Kirito asked after a moment

Klein grabbed the hair that was made straight by the bandana and nodded.

"Yeah. We have someone with good tracking skill."

"Klein, you don't need to mask the tracker." I sighed and step out behind him. Kirito turned his head and nodded to me.

"Monica… So, why me?"

Klein spoke up to answer that

"Because I bought the information that you bought all the tree coordinates, and for safety measure, I went to look at the sentry gate at the 49th level, but found that you were moving towards the level where there was no information on. I felt that your battle ability and gaming instincts were really strong, stronger than the clearing group...even more than that Heathcliff. So...Kirito, you can't die at a place like this."

Klein reached out his right hand, pointed his finger at Kirito and shouted,

"Give up on that reckless solo attack and party with us! Let the person who gets the revival item drop keep it, okay!?"

"...In that case..."

I held my breath, hoping that Kirito would accept the invitation.

"…it's meaningless...I have to attack alone..."

"It's not meaningless, if we work together, any revival item goes to you, and we'll just take any equipment that we get, okay?" Argo had informed me that the boss would drop a revival item when defeated, and I felt that Kirito wants to get it. But if he goes alone, he might die.

Just then, another group arrived

"Seemed like you guys were followed too, Klein."

"...Ahh, looks that way..."

At the boundary that looked like it was 50m away, there were people I recently saw at the anthill, staring wordlessly at Fuurinkazan and Kirito.

I heard that the Divine Dragon Alliance were willing to go orange just for rare items. While I do admire their drive, going so far for just rare items was not justified. They were similar to the orange guilds that had started popping out.

"DAMN IT! THOSE BASTARDS!"

The katana user drew out the weapon at his waist faster than I could and growled at Kirito behind.

"Get over there, Kirito! Leave this to me! Go beat the boss! I won't allow you to die though! I won't forgive you if you dare to die in front of me! Never!"

Giving Klein a nod of acknowledgement, I tossed two healing crystals to the black swordsman. Catching them in one hand, he turned around and entered the hidden portal.

The ten of us drew out our weapons, facing the party of thirty members or so.

"Give it up, you are outnumbered." The leader had told us, using that time he was talking to us; I dripped a sickly green liquid onto my Katar, making it glow the same color.

"Like hell we are going to abandon our friends, let's start!" Klein yelled at us, charging forward. Making my way past Klein, I intercepted the two guards with a well placed Horizontal Sword Skill, causing both of them to fall onto the floor, paralyzed for the next ten minutes.

"I-I can't move my body!" One of them yelled. The Alliance started to panic while I danced around them, inflicting the paralysis on as many players as I could. For the next ten minutes, it would be ten against twenty-five.

I dodged the vertical attack from one of my opponents while nicking him with my Katar. Each of us was in combat with at two members while Klein and I were fighting three each. My four wolves fought against one. However, the players were too used to fighting monsters, and did not expect us to dodge their strikes easily. Using the body of the paralyzed player as a shield, I blocked the savage fulcrum of the tank user. His life was reduced by seventy percent with that one hit, I must be careful. Using the Katar to put him in the defense, I searched his armor for any openings. A tank's weak point is usually the joints, but this tank covered them with chainmail, preventing me from inflicting the effect on him.

"Tch… bloody armor…" I sweared when the tank player swung his lance in a wide arc, barely missing me when I dodged it. My life points had finally turned yellow, but I did not notice as I engaged the other two players who attacked me after they defeated their opponents.

Several of the Fuurinkazan members retreated with at least one opponent routed, Klein defeated five before his life went red. The match steadily decreases to five against ten. I myself had only taken down four, excluding the one that I took out at the beginning and the one my wolves took down.

I leaned back to avoid a Vertical Arc from another of my opponents, hands already posed for a thrust on him. I had almost activated the sword skill when I remembered that I was fighting against a player, punching the player in the face instead. The stun effect was activated when I struck him squarely on the jaw with a left hook. Three more players to go…

Another member of the Divine Dragon Alliance tried to stun me with his Meteor Break Skill, had I not noticed him coming at me from behind. I sidestepped out of his trajectory and slammed my armed arm into the player to my right while reveling in the crash of the other two players. The player I had attack was quickly dealt a paralysis blow before I turned to the last two players.

I studied the armor of the tank player I had engaged previously, his speed is greatly reduced from the double armor he was wearing into combat. But looking at it closely, there was flesh peeking out at his collar, a weak spot!

I feint a thrust to try a horizontal slash on the tank of the trio, but accidentally activated the sword skill Snake Bite. The skill forced me to connect two strikes on the neck of the tank user. His health went to red instantly, and the paralysis caused the body to hit the trunk of the giant tree. Hearing noises behind me, I spun around, spotting the male sword-and-shield user that I had stunned previously. Without thinking, I activated Reversed Horizontal and cut off the man's head.

That man's health depleted to zero immediately, and shattered into polygons. All of our fighting had stopped when I player killed someone by accident. I started hyperventilating. Oh no…

"You- You killed him!" One of the members screamed at me.

I started backing away from the last three Divine Dragon Alliance members, shocked and angered by what I had done.

"Murderess!" One of them screams. Internally, I started debating.

One side of me tells me to drop my weapon and back off. But another side claims that these things happened in battles. Right?

Right…

That's right… we are fighting each other now…

Things started making sense now… We are fighting after all… These things _can_ happen…

"Wha—why are you laughing!?" I heard someone in front of me ask. "You… you demon!"

"So…?" I slurred while heading in the direction of the voice. I heard shuffling in front of me as I activated the Sword Skill Fatal Fury.

Another death should make things clear…

My arms start moving with the system.

What am I doing?

Diagonal… Right… Down…Spin…

He is a monster…

My arms are raise for a stab.

No! He's human!

Is he?

Yes!

Really?

He's a fellow player!

CRAP! STOP!

At the last moment, I aimed the attack to the left as much as possible.

"HIEEKK!" A man screams in front of me.

I started replaying the scene before me. I had just taken a life and was about to take… another!?

I jumped back immediately and discard my Howling Gale… Stumbling back a good distance, I yelled at them to get out of here.

"Why should we listen to you? You're just a murderess!"

"I may be so… and I may kill you all if you don't run away now…" I replied while trying to hold in the urge to pick up the weapon from the ground and stabbing that man.

Just pick the knife and stab him already!

The Divine Dragon Alliance promptly ran off, fear overcoming their drive.

The truth of what happened then hit me, my legs gave way and I collapsed.

"Monica!" Klein shouted, running to support me.

I had just killed a man, even if it was unintentional…

Tears welled up in my eyes; I didn't even know his name…

"Are you okay?" Klein asked.

"I… didn't… even know his name…" I managed to say those words in-between my sobs.

We stood there in silence, while Kirito appeared a multi-colored crystal in his hands.

"… Ki-Kirito…"

"This is the revival item, but it cannot be used on people who have died long ago. Take it and save the next person who dies in front of you."

Those words resounded into my head. I immediately picked up the crystal to see how it would work.

[The item can be used on the player's shortcut menu or holding the materialized item and shouting «Revive ... Player Name», the effect will only work and revive the fallen player during the time frame between death of the player to the disappearance of item's effect light. (approximately 10 seconds)] 

Player name… In other words, I couldn't resurrect the man I'd just killed. Once again, I broke down into tears.

"Did something happen?" Kirito asked as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Monica took a life…" Klein softly replied, but the effect was instantaneous.

Faster than I realized, I was slammed into the tree trunk, Kirito's face contorted in anger.

"Did you do it on purpose?" He asked, pinning me there.

"No…"

"Did you do it on purpose!?" He screamed at me, hands drawing out his Dark Blade. Trembling uncontrollably, I screamed in reply.

"No! I didn't! I didn't want to do it! It just happened! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! He was behind me and I just thought he-he was going to attack me! I didn't think he would die! I thought he was one of them I was fighting! I'm sorry!" I ended with a loud scream before Kirito dropped me.

"Do you know his name?" He uttered to me.

"…No…"

Giving a large sigh, Kirito started making his way back.

"Kirito… Kirito... You... You must survive... Even if everyone perishes, you… you must survive till the end..."

"Good-Bye."

I hear Klein and Kirito exchanged some words, and then there was silence as Klein moved to pick up the forgotten crystal…

"Are you okay…?" Klein asked after some time.

"I'm sorry…" I started repeating myself…

"There's nothing to be sorry for…"

"But he didn't deserve to die…"

"I know…"

"But he still—"

"—it doesn't matter; you can't take back what happened."

"If I'd let him strike—"

"—But you didn't."

"So I'm at fault…"

"No… It's his fault for attacking behind you…" Klein tried to console me, hugging me tightly.

But no matter what he said, I still knew I was the one at fault.

Even worse, I actually enjoyed it...

* * *

**13 January 2024, Aincrad 48****th**** floor, Lindearth. Klein's POV**

"Okay… this one is done too…" I told myself as I completed the shirt Ashley had asked me to do."

"Hey, Ashley, it's done!"

"Ahh… Thank you!" A female voice echoed after me. If I wasn't worried about Monica, I might have tried to ask her out for a date.

"It's not a problem…" I sighed, looking at the guest room occupied by Monica.

It's been two weeks since that incident, and she still cannot get over it. Some nights I can hear her screaming and thrashing in the room, other nights she would be whimpering… If killing someone would affect a girl like that, how can the orange guilds commit such a crime so easily? They must be insane I think…

Folding up the shirt and placing it neatly at a stack. I stared blankly at the skill level up message in front of me. I only took the sewing skill because I could help Ashley and make some money as well. After the incident, I requested a temporarily leave from the front line to look after Monica. My guild members had already learnt all I knew about the system inputs, making them my fellow guild members than apprentices. The guild had expanded somewhat, housing the eleven of us, twelve if you include Monica.

Poor Monica is forced to overcome this herself; I can't do anything to help her. Anything I say to her seems to make her flinch away. So I decided to just stand by her side silently. I just hope she would recover soon.

Grabbing another roll of cloth, I started working on making a pair of pants, halfway through the process, I heard footsteps coming close.

"Ashley, how can I help?"

"You can start by telling me who is Ashley." The reply was a voice I did not expect. Lifting my head up, I stared at the Katar-User.

Baggy eyes told me she did not sleep well for the past few days, a malnourished look on her face. In short, she looked extremely fragile now.

Taking care not to hurt her, I explained to her what had happened the past few days, bringing her to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Is that so…?" she wondered when I finished, taking a bite from the black bread. Gradually, her face started looking healthier with each bite.

"How are you feeling?" I clamped my hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look at me in the eye.

"Tired… I guess... and a little bit hungry…" She sighed before finishing her bread.

I watched her wander around the shop, inspecting the machines and cloths.

"About the incident…" Monica suddenly spoke up.

"Can we please forget about it?"

That wasn't a question; it was a statement. I merely nodded my head

"Well then…shall we go for a hunt? You must be rusty after taking care of me for so long." She gave a tired smile while exiting the shop. I re-equipped my katana and followed her, her wolves trailing on my heels.

We entered the Hill of Memories on the forty-seventh floor, fighting against the Giant Venus Fly Trap. I start off by using Reaver to intercept their attacks while Monica exploits the opening. But she tears through them viciously, leaving no room for mercy. Rather than using a combination of normal attacks with some sword skills thrown in, she now uses sword skill after sword skill, using her other limbs to connect the attacks. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she was sadistic from that smile on her face.

A level up message was shown to Monica after we slay the fifth monster. Monica wasted no time to distribute her extra stats before moving on.

"Monica-san…"

"What is it?"

"Are you really okay?"

"What are you talking about; of course I'm alright…" Monica replied, irritated.

"You're attacking rather viciously—"

"So? It gets the job done." She cut me off before storming off.

Something was definitely wrong with her; she still hasn't gotten over it yet.

* * *

**Monica's stats (24/12/2023)**

Level: 60

Strength: 60

Agility: 120

Health/Base: 10 678/1782hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv367, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv334, Familiar Recovery Lv353, Night Vision Lv314, Acrobatics Lv385, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv286, Sprint Lv1 (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv201

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+5 (3D, 2Q): Strength+40 (800+150hp), reduces speed by 5-2%. Durability: 800+150, HP+3500. 2/10 Upgrades remaining.

Silver Bracers +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+100, HP+1500. 3/10 Upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +9 (6D, 3Q): Strength +20 (400+300hp), reduces speed by 6-3%. Durability: 550+300. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. 3/20 Upgrades remaining

Howling Gale (Katar) +16 (7S, 7D, 2Q): 660-670+70dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+350. 28/50 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Sigh… why must the anime end just before Christmas? Haa… well, this enjoy the early Christmas story, the next chapter should be coming quickly after this.**


	10. Deranged Rose

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. If I do, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction of it. Any character not in the novel is mine though!**

**Monica's stats (24/2/2024)**

Level: 73

Strength: 73

Agility: 146

Health/Base: 11 214 / 2094hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv543, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv475, Familiar Recovery Lv489, Night Vision Lv452, Acrobatics Lv412, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv432, Sprint Lv 233, Musical Instrument Lv5, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv413

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+6 (4D, 2Q): Strength+40 (800+200hp), reduces speed by 5-2%. Durability: 800+200, HP+3500. No upgrades remaining.

Silver Bracers +5 (3D, 2Q): Strength +20 (400+150hp), reduces speed by 6-2%. Durability: 400+150, HP+1500. No upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +11 (8D, 3Q): Strength +20 (400+400hp), reduces speed by 6-3%. Durability: 550+400. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. 3/20 Upgrades remaining

Howling Gale (Katar) +22 (10S, 10D, 2Q): 660-670+100dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+500. 17/50 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 9: Deranged Rose**

**Edited after Kent Rigel's review. Hope you can see a major chance of Monica's character now.**

* * *

**17****th**** February 2024, Aincrad 53****rd**** floor, Teleport Gates of Tera.**

"That guy is still at it…" I muttered to Kirito while watching a sliver clad knight kneeling at the Gates of Grandum, pleading for someone to help him.

"Yeah… It's kind of pitiful…" Kirito murmured in agreement while watching him.

"It really can't be helped… We are going to clear this floor's boss…"

"Once we get back, you are going to help him, right?"

"Un… We need to put a stop to all these PKing…But I still need to keep an eye on as well, so…"

"Yeah, yeah… Come on then, Kirito, Alaska." I motioned to my now three wolves to follow me. Kirito's worrying too much about me now. I haven't had those thoughts for a long time… what makes it any different today?

* * *

**23****rd**** February 2024, Aincrad 35****th**** floor, Forest of Wandering.**

I jumped from one tree to another using my acrobatics skill to propel me. Landing on a tree above a party, I scanned the tree line for Kirito.

He should have gotten my report from tracking the other green PKer. I spotted him hiding behind one of the tree trunks, Elucidator held ready. The party in question consisted of Silica, my friend and now idol, a member of the Titan's hand, and four other players.

I cannot wait for the moment the Titan hand member reveals himself. I will have much fun interrogating him… Oh… uh ho… Focus on the task first!

Silica and a red hair lady were arguing about something, I'm guessing crystals, before Silica closed her inventory screen and left the party. She declared something before storming off.

"I'm going to follow her, you continue to track them." Kirito gestured to me, before taking off.

I silently followed the group to another place, taking out another group of Drunken Apes. Suddenly, a group of eight orange players appeared before them, their cursor orange in color. I gave a shrill whistle, indicating for my wolves to pull any players to me, while observing them.

The party of four scattered in multiple directions, two players at their heels. One of the players ran past my tree, which I took advantage of to scoop him up. Leaving him terrified on the tree trunk, I watched the map to follow what was going on.

Two of the players ran off in the opposite direction, and disappeared quickly. The beautiful array of blue polygons can give the worst assumption for them. The last one was being chased by my wolf trio, the two members of the PK party falling behind.

"Please don't kill me!" The man squeaked, attracting my attention. For a moment, I considered before I realized what he had said. Oops… This is bad…

I turned around; placing a single finger on my lip, then continue tracking the last player.

Alaska is doing quite fine, bringing him towards the tree after losing the pursuers. I jumped off the tree, landing onto the silver knight that I was tracking. The blue staff-user gaped at me, scrambling down the tree to help his friend up.

"Good work, Alaska." I whispered to my familiar, petting him on his head. He replied with a yip.

"Another beast tamer? What luck!" The silver mace-user whispered to the staff-user.

"Should we ask her to party with us?" Why are they so ignorant of what happened. Do they really want to die? Should I just kill them and get over it? Wait… What?

I sighed and turned around. If I saw correctly, the red lady was the one who turned on them.

"Do you know the name of the one in red? The one arguing with Silica?" I questioned.

"Ah, her name is Rosalia, she was in league with those PKers." The silver mace user spat.

So she was the member… I should have killed her while I had the chance.

"Ah… I see…" I nodded my head in agreement while sending Kirito a message.

"Erm… If it is not too much to ask… could you party with us for awhile?" The man clad in blue asked. I gave it some thought before replying.

"Not right now, I need to stop the PKing first."

"Ah… another time then, let's add each other as a friend first." He replied while sending a friend request to me. His name was Lancelot, like the name from the stories of King Arthur.

"Okay." I gave a smile while accepting his request. The silver mace user sent his friend request next, introducing himself as Terra. I scrutinized the name before telling him straight on.

"You actually wanted a female character, right?"

Lancelot unsuccessfully held in laughter while Terra blush a bright red color.

"I actually wanted to see how much of a change we could have…" he confessed. Ah well, it is not like he could change that.

Bidding them good bye, I moved to the rendezvous location set up by Kirito, a room next to Silica.

"So her name is Rosalia, huh?" Kirito asked while I entered his room.

"Yes, she uses a spear and has curly red hair and armor." I explained while taking a seat in the room. "Should have taken her out as quickly as possible…"

"We'd just met a few minutes ago… So that's who the PKer was…" Kirito mused while deep in thought. There went another chance…

"Well… chances are she would have someone eavesdropping on you right now. We can use this chance to set up bait. Or we could get rid of him first."

"I'm already done with that… we're heading to the hill of memories." Kirito bluntly replied.

"To get the Pneuma Flower? Did Pina die? You'd lost them didn't you…"

"Ahh… She teleported once, and Pina died before I found them again."

"I see…" I keep quiet after that.

We sat in silence for a while, thinking of our own problems. The door was then knocked on.

"Who is it?" Kirito asks, meanwhile, I moved myself to the window of the room.

"It's Silica, can I come in?" I silently opened the window and hoped out of the building. Alaska and his partners following behind.

I hear Kirito trying to find me for a moment. Really, he worries about his friends too much, I thought while typing a message to him.

Kirito,

I left through the window, stop trying to find me…

If you don't succeed, should I pass her my Pneuma Flower?

Monica.

Hitting the send button, I made my way into the inn to rent a room.

**24****th**** February 2024, Aincrad 47****th**** floor, Entrance of the Hill of Memories.**

Patience was never one of my good points.

I tapped my foot impatiently while watching the road to the Hill of Memories. Five minutes ago, Kirito and Silica left to obtain the Pneuma Flower while I was on sentry duty.

I had secluded myself in one of the trees again, using my acrobatics skill to lift me and the two players I had rescued into the tree. There were three entrances to the Hill of Memories, one directly from Floria, one from the Forest of Giant Flowers and one to the Scented field opposite Floria. It is highly unlikely that Rosalia and her guild would enter by the latter two routes, which were where Lancelot and Terra were stationed at.

Another five minutes had pass when I saw Titan's Hand arriving at my entrance. Hitting the send button of the prepared message to Kirito, I watched them begin to set up, hiding wherever possible.

* * *

**Kirito's POV.**

I hope nothing bad has happened to Monica yet; dealing with one of her mental breakdowns was never nice. I wonder how Klein survives everyday with her around.

A little down the hill was the bridge Silica and I had crossed a few moments ago, now it was occupied with multiple members of the Titan Hand. While we could only see Rosailia now, there wasn't any doubt in my mind that her lackey's are nearby. Just then, a system message popped out telling me about the size of the PK party in front of us

The message was prepared by me; hence I would already know what it was. I feigned shock and concern on my face, making Silica feel a little worried. The message was a little too late, both Silica and I were close to that place. Rosalia must have seen us already; she would be suspicious if we suddenly walked away.

"Kirito-kun? What's wrong?" Silica asked, concern written on her face.

"I have a bad feeling about Rosalia' presence here…" I told her while pointing her at the direction of Rosalia. Silica was rather surprised when they saw each other.

We stopped at the bridge, and I called to them.

"You guys lying in ambush, come out right now."

"What...!?"

Silica quickly looked towards the other side, but she couldn't see anyone. After a few tense seconds passed, the leaves started moving with a rustling sound. Cursors that represented the players appeared. They were green, so they weren't criminals.

"Ro-Rosalia-san...!? Why are you at a place like..."

Rosalia smiled lopsidedly and ignored the question from Silica, whose eyes were wide open with surprise.

"To think that you saw through my hiding; it seems that your scan skill is pretty high, swordsman. Did I underestimate you a little?"

Then she turned towards Silica:

"Looks like you luckily managed to get Pneuma's Flower. Congratulations, Silica."

Silica, who couldn't figure out Rosalia's true intentions, took a couple of steps back. She felt something inexplicably bad about this. Rosalia didn't betray her expectations and began speaking a second later:

"Hand over that flower right now."

Silica didn't know what to say.

" What... what are you saying...?"

I merely stepped forward and opened my mouth.

"I can't let you do that, Rosalia-san, or rather, leader of the orange guild Titan's Hand."

Rosalia's eyebrows twitched upwards and the smile disappeared from her face.

In SAO, players who commit acts that are judged as criminals, such as stealing, harming other players, or killing them, have their cursors' color changed from green to orange. Therefore, people refer to these criminal individuals as orange players and a guild that consist of them as orange guilds. Silica must have known about this, but she must have never seen them before.

Yet Rosalia's cursor, which she could see right in front of her eyes, was green no matter how she looked at it. Silica looked up at me, who was standing next to her, and asked in a dry voice:

"Hey... but... look... Rosalia-san's, it's green..."

"Even in an orange guild, there are plenty of occasions when not all of the members are orange. The green members search out prey and hide amongst their parties before luring them to the ambush point. The person whom tried eavesdropping on us yesterday must be a member of her group as well."

"Wha-What..."

Silica looked at Rosalia with shock and loathing.

"The—then, the reason she partied with us for the past two weeks was because..."

Rosalia smiled venomously once again and spoke:

"Yeah… I was checking out how strong the party was, and at the same time was waiting for them to grow fat on the money they earned through their adventuring. In fact, I took care of them yesterday."

Not completely, but I didn't tell her that. The day before, after Silica had fallen asleep in my room, I took the two survivors of the attack and trained them overnight with the help of Monica. Speaking of which, where was she?

'Rosailia' licked her lips as she stared at Silica.

"I was wondering why the person I looked forward to hunting the most suddenly left, and then I heard that you were going to get a rare item. Pneuma's Flower is pretty expensive these days. Gathering information is important after all…"

Then she stopped talking for a moment, giving a weird look at me, and shrugged.

"But swordsman, you were playing with this kid even though you knew that? Are you some kind of idiot? Or did you really fall for her?"

Silica's face reddened with fury at Rosalia's insults. Her hand moved to draw her dagger. But I just grabbed her shoulder and bluntly replied to her.

"No, it's none of those things."

I coldly replied.

"I, or rather, we were looking for you as well, Rosalia-san."

"We…? What do you mean?"

"You attacked the guild Silver Flag ten days ago on the thirty-eighth floor, right? The one where four members died and only the leader survived."

"Ah… those beggars?"

Rosalia didn't even flinch as she nodded.

"That leader... he was looking for somebody to avenge his team in the gate plaza at the front lines, crying from morning till night."

A terrifying coldness could be felt from my words. It felt like a blade of ice that had been sharpened to cut anything that came near.

"But when I received his request, he didn't ask me to kill you. All he asked me to do was to throw you all into the prison of the Black Iron Castle… could you understand how he felt?"

"Nope."

Rosalia answered as if she couldn't even be bothered. I'm pretty sure I felt Monica turning bloodthirsty… If only I can find her and stop her…

"What? Why are you acting so serious? Are you stupid? There's no evidence that the person dies in real life if you kill them here anyway. Besides, it's not like this will be a crime when we return to the real world. We don't even know if we can go back, yet here you talk about justice and rules; it's not even funny. I hate guys like you the most, people who dragged some weird logic in with them when they came into this world."

Rosalia's eyes grew angry.

"So, you mean to tell me that you seriously took the words of some guy who couldn't even die properly and were looking for us? You really have nothing to do. Well, I'll acknowledge that I fell for your bait. But... do you really think that you can do anything with just two people...?"

A sadistic smile appeared on her face and she waved her hand twice in the air.

At that moment, the trees on either sides of the path that led straight from the bridge shook violently, and people appeared from between them. Cursors emerged one after another into Silica's vision. Most of them were orange. Like Monica had said, there were nine of them, including Rosalia. If we had crossed the bridge without spotting the ambush, then we would have been surrounded.

The bandits who just appeared were all male players dressed in gaudy clothes. They all had silver accessories and sub-equipment hanging from all over their bodies. But I was more worried about where Monica is, she must be somewhere nearby, ready to strike.

Silica hid behind my coat as feelings of revulsion came over her. She whispered quietly:

"Ki-Kirito-san... there are too many. We have to run...!"

"It's fine. Just have your crystal ready until I tell you to get away." I wasn't worried about the damage they could do to me, with forteen thousand health points, They couldn't kill me unless I was paralyzed.

I walked towards the other side of the bridge.

"Kirito-san...!" Silica called to me, probably worried.

But as soon as her voice rang through the field…

"Kirito...?"

I had given up on finding her now; she has cleverly used the trees to her advantage again. I just hope I can stop whatever crazy plan she has now…

One of the bandits muttered something. His smile faded and he frowned; his eyes moved from one side to another as if he were trying to remember something. His face suddenly grew pale as he stepped back.

"Thi-This is serious Rosalia-san! That bastard... he's a clearer...!"

At his words, the expressions of all the other members hardened with shock. Silica must have been surprised as well. I thought as I turned to look at her. She was totally taken aback.

Even Rosalia stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds before she came to her senses and screamed:

"Wh-Why would a clearer be wandering around here!? He probably just called himself that to scare us! What he's wearing is just some cosplay. And— even if he really were The Black Swordsman, he should be a pushover with this many people!"

As if their vigor had returned with her remark, the huge axe-wielder who stood at the head of the orange players shouted:

"Ye-Yeah! If he's a clearer then he should have a lot of items and money too right!? This is a really big chance!"

All the bandits agreed and drew their weapons. The numerous bits of metal glinted with heinous light.

"Kirito-san... it's impossible to win, run!"

Silica shouted desperately with the crystal grasped tightly in her hand. As Rosalia had said, he wouldn't be able to win no matter how strong he is with this many enemies. But Kirito didn't move. He didn't even draw his weapon.

They seemed to have taken this as a form of resignation; the eight players, which didn't include Rosalia and the other green player, all drew their weapons and raced against each other to reach Kirito first. They stomped across the short bridge and then, giving a warcry.

"Die!"

* * *

**Monica's POV**

They surrounded Kirito, who had his head bowed down, in a half circle before they all hit him with their weapons. Kirito's body shook violently from the force of nine attacks.

"No!"

Silica screamed as she covered her face with her hands.

"No! Stop! Kirito-san's going to, d...die!"

Like they would listen, I sighed.

Some of them laughed manically, while others kept swearing as they continued to attack Kirito as if they were intoxicated by the violence. Hell… it looks so intoxicating as well. Rosalia, who stood at the middle of the bridge, couldn't stop her excitement from showing as she stared at the tragedy while licking her finger. I wet my lips with my tongue as I started thinking of ripping that smile of her face. Perhaps dismemberment would do it.

At these floor, Kirito's HP bar wouldn't decrease as his battle healing was sixty-percent mastered. The same would have applied to me, since I had mastered it a few months ago.

The bandits finally noticed that the black swordsman in front of them showed no sign of falling and their expressions became confused.

"What the hell are you guys doing!? Kill him!"

At Rosalia's anxious order, the blows rained down for a few more seconds. But there was no change in the situation, the confusion got worse.

"Hey... what's going on...?"

Silence fell upon the area, and in the middle of it, Kirito slowly raised his head, his low, confident voice working with him.

"About 400 every 10 seconds? That's the amount of damage you nine dealt to me. I'm on level 78, my HP is 14,500... Add that I automatically regain 600 points every 10 seconds with Battle Healing. You all can't defeat me even if you keep hitting me for hours."

The bandits stood there with their mouths wide open, as if they were in shock. Eventually, the two-handed sword user, who seemed to be the sub-leader, said in a dry voice.

"Is... is that even allowed...? It doesn't even make any freaking sense..."

Of course, just a difference in numbers makes such a ridiculous disparity in strength; that's the unreasonable part of level system MMORPGs… The hunter has turned into the hunted.

The bandits stepped back, as if they were intimidated by Kirito's voice, which seemed to hide something behind it. Their surprised faces were replaced by looks of terror.

"Che."

Rosalia tutted and then drew out a teleport crystal from her hip. She raised it high up into the air and opened her mouth:

"Teleport—"

Not on my watch.

I droped down above her with a Guillotine Chop Sword Skill readied. The strike connected with her arm, slicing it off and implementing both paralyze and maim status on her.

"Ah… Ah… aaaahhh!" Her shock numbed the minute pain of losing an arm in SAO, her life decreasing from her status. Seeing her missing arm, she gave a terrified scream while I pulled the teleport crystal out of her missing arm, my blade on her neck. My cursor had once again turned orange. I leered at the terrified face of Rosailia.

"I heard you a few moments ago… you won't die if I destroy this avatar, right?"

Just move the Katar to the right and she would shatter.

The horrified looks of the orange guild was priceless, and I just need a single movement to make it even more enjoyable.

Should I?

"… You want to test your own theory out?" I whispered into her ear, licking my lips noisily to instill fear.

"Monica! Stop now!" Someone, maybe Kirito, yelled.

Why should you?

"Why should I?"

"The client said to thrown them in jail!"

"Really… what if they don't want to…" I countered while keeping an eye on the eight players. All of them seem to want to drop everything and run. But with Kirito at one side and me and the other, it wouldn't be possible. I wanted to enjoy the feeling a bit more.

At this time, Lancelot and Terra had arrived, surrounding the party of nine.

"Well…? Rosailia…?"

"Heeh!?"

"Gee… you've didn't know what I said?" I smiled while pressing the Katar harder on her throat. Her life bar had reach red from the Weapon on her neck.

Are they human?

Yes they are…

But they kill others…

…

Should we give them a taste of their medicine?

No!

Why…

Because they're human!

"Stop it, Monica… I think they've gotten your point." A young but mature voice sounded. I looked at the red life bar; it was a few dots to empty.

Just a bit more…

No!

But I want to watch the petals…

No!

I release the lady and shoved her into the group.

"And I wanted to see it again…" I sighed without thinking.

The Titan Hand was now trapped between Kirito and me. They will most likely run towards Kirito after what I did. But getting past either of us is close to impossible.

"Corridor open!"

The dark blue crystal in Kirito's hand shattered in an instant and a blue whirlpool of light appeared.

"The person who had asked me to do this bought this corridor crystal with all the money he had. He said that he set the prison area of the Black Iron Castle as the exit. So I'll be teleporting all of you to prison, and The Army could cover the rest from there."

"And if you don't want to get in there willingly, we can test out Rosailia's theory on you guys…" I continued in a sweet voice. The effect was instantaneous.

"Aaaaiiieee!"

All nine members ran into the blue light immediately. The corridor shined brightly for a moment before then vanished.

I couldn't help but laugh at the comical way they chose imprisonment over death. Didn't they say that dying here means escaping this world? Why are they so afraid of trying it out?

Yes… like the guy from December…

A slap on my left cheek shocked me out of my stupor.

"What happened to you…?"

What?

What happened?

"Why?"

Was something wrong?

I turned to stare at the player who had slapped me. It was the black swordsman, his bangs covering his eyes, so I could not see his expression.

"You've change…"

I spotted Silica a god distance away from both of us, her eye were rather wide.

Was she shocked?

I turned back to ask Kirito a question.

"What do you mean?"

He raises his head, hatred imminent in it, and started shouting.

"Everything! What happened to the Monica a few months ago! The one who cried when she took a life!? She's gone! Replaced by you now! Why are you trying to kill those players!?"

The answer for that was simple, but the way he phrased it made me feel guilty…

You almost tried to kill another player.

One life wasn't enough for you?

Killer

PKer

Criminal.

"MURDERESS!"

"Bu—But if I didn't—"

"Then you could have paralyzed them, right!? There… There's no need for anyone else to die…"

"Then… if a single death… could save ten others… would you…?"

Kirito turned around, held Silica's hand, and exchanged some words with her.

So… That was his answer…

It was the same as mine…

Kirito silently pulled Silica past me, whispering a few words into my ear.

"I don't want to see you for a few days…"

And he was gone.

* * *

**Aaannnnd Stop! **

**Uh ho… Monica has started losing her mind into the game…**

**Anything that can be improved? Tell me with a review!**


	11. Loki of the Tricksters

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters.**

**Changes: Changed Summary and Title**

**Monica's stats (22/4/2024)**

Level: 77

Strength: 77

Agility: 154

Health/Base: 11 214 / 2238hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv623, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv599, Familiar Recovery Lv601, Night Vision Lv616, Acrobatics Lv604, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv611, Sprint Lv622, Musical Instrument Lv334, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv584

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+6 (4D, 2Q): Strength+40 (800+200hp), reduces speed by 5-2%. Durability: 800+200, HP+3500. No upgrades remaining.

Silver Bracers +5 (3D, 2Q): Strength +20 (400+150hp), reduces speed by 6-2%. Durability: 400+150, HP+1500. No upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Howling Gale (Katar) +24 (11S, 11D, 2Q): 660-670+110dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+550. 14/50 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 10: Loki of Trickery**

* * *

**22****nd**** April 2024, Aincrad 59****th**** floor, 1****st**** floor of the Frost Troll Tower. **

_Murderess_

_Killer_

_Criminal_

_Manslaughterer_

_Villian_

_Psychopath_

"Monica…"

"_What happened to you…?"_

_Butcher_

"Oooi…"

"_There's no need for anyone else to die…"_

_Monster_

"MONICA!"

"Eh!? What?"

I stopped my legs and looked around. Asuna was clearly furious with me, while the other four party members were sitting down at random areas.

Weren't we exploring a dungeon just now?

I opened my mouth to ask Asuna when she replied to me.

"We're in a safe zone now, what were you thinking?"

"Ah…"

"We we tried to get near you, you pull of a sword skill to push us away… You should have seen the torches right?"

"I did? Sorry…" I shook out of my stupor as sheathed my weapon

"Can't you tell us? We can't have you dragging us down…"

"No… it's something I must get over alone…"

"Whatever it is… you need to sort out your priorities quickly! Especially at this time, you could have Pked us." She lectured me while handing me a loaf of bread and a package of water. I nibbled it absentmindedly.

"Don't worry about me…"

I definitely was not okay.

I quickly finished the bread without thinking and unsheathe the Katar, standing outside. I noted that four frost wolves were waiting outside of the safe area, which was strange since monsters are usually far away from it.

The four wolves sniffed the air for a moment before turning their heads towards me. I activated Beastiarial Understanding, a skill from my unique skill to determine their favorite food. Slowly back away from the beasts, I opened up my inventory to toss the pack a slab of Mammoth Meat, a drop from the passive monster from the fifty-fifth floor, and their main food from the beastiarial skill. So I wasn't surprised to see their lunging for the materialized meat.

Immediately, I sent Argo a message on another monster familiar. I have been sending information on monster familiars since I unlocked Beastiarial Understanding. The skill allows me to analyze possible familiar events to find out their favorite food. Of course, not all monsters could be tamed. All of them were usually animals that are small and tamable in real life, so no fantasy monsters could be tamed. Both Silica and I were lucky to be at the place where a unique monster was; the feathery dragon, Pina for Silica and Prism, the Dark Elf for me. Prysm was already dead, so Silica was the only one with a unique monster.

Asuna and the rest of the party came out to watch the scene. The alpha wolf came up to me, sniffed me for a bit before nodding its head.

I was about to pet its head when a frost troll showed up, roaring with its finger pointing at me.

Oops?

"Frost Troll!" Kuradeel panicked, and jumped back into the safe area. Morgana, a male mace-user with a shield, used his searching skill to analyze the monster.

"Frost Troll… Tamer?" He questioned while I dodged the first blow coming from the troll's club. I stabbed it twice, once with a Rapid Bite, before unsuccessfully dodging the arm of the troll.

"Wolf! Feral Bite!" I shouted once I recovered from the blow. The four wolves came at the frost troll in multiple direction, teeth glowing. The troll ignored their furious attacks, strolling in one direction towards me.

"Why are monsters able to use taming skills anyway?" One of the member mused. That's certainly not helping me, I grimanced at the five members.

"I dunno… They usually work together, right?" I ducked under the club and activated horizontal square on the Troll. His life bar decrease from yellow to red.

"Come to think of it, didn't floor seven had a war between two species?"

"Can't you guys help!?" I started screaming, I'm in a middle of a battle here and you guys are talking about theories! Ack!" I got hit by the troll's club again, my life bar had reach thirty percent now.

"Ahh! Sorry!"

"It would have gotten funnier if you said it after you killed it, you know?" I heard one of my members commented after we exited the Northern Dungeon. The field had turned from a cold field to a sunny one. Beowulf, my new familiar, and his companions had followed us when we pulled out of the dungeon after that attack from the Frost Troll Tamer. With our mapping done today, all of us were splitting up, much to Asuna's irritation.

Both Asuna and I were going back to find another party when we spotted a familiar dark figure under a tree.

Kirito, the Black Swordsman.

"Him again!?Mou…" Asuna complained while running up to him.

"What are you doing?" she asked rather calmly.

Kirito opened his eyes and gave me a dark glare before staring at the orange-haired fencer.

"Oh, it's you two… What is it?"

"The other lead group members are all working hard to clear the dungeon. So why are you out here taking a nap?" Kirito shrugged again, promptly Asuna to continue.

"Even if you're a solo player, you need to be serious—"

"—its Aincrad's nicest season and today is its nicest weather setting. Entering a dungeon on a day like this is a waste." Kirito bluntly interrupted.

"Do you not understand? Every day we spend here is one we've lost in the real world!" Asuna lectured, clearly miffed by his explanation.

"But right now, we're alive here, in Aincrad."

I couldn't see her facial expression from my position, but the words struck deep into her, judging from the silence.

"See? The wind and sunlight feel so good…"

"Do they? There's nothing special about this weather."

"If you'd lie down for a bit, you'd understand." Kirito offered, indulging himself into the serene atmosphere.

How they had become so distance with each other in a year, I do not understand. I still can remember the day where Kirito and Asuna partied up for the first time, Kirito teaching the basics of parties to Asuna and telling her she would eventually be strong.

On the other hand, the distance between Kirito and I were easily explainable.

_Murderess_

I shook my head of such thoughts and sat down beside Kirito. Asuna laid down on the other side and quickly fell asleep.

"My, my…" I sighed at her carelessness, Kirito sat up to study the face of Asuna, picking on the cheeks of the unconscious avatar.

"We can't just leave her here, but she'll have my head if we move her." He sighed. A trio of clearers passed by, laughing at the scene.

"I didn't think she'd really fall asleep…" Kirito stated to me. "I guess we'll have to guard her, right?"

"You can go off if you want…"

"I'm not leaving someone helpless to you." Kirito instantly rejected my proposal.

"Hai, Hai…" Ahh… When will he trust me again…?

I materialized my flute played a simple tune to warm up. The flute seems to calm me down considerably especially since it keeps my mind off the bad memories.

Beowulf and his pack spread themselves around the city, finding interest in the butterflies and chasing them. I watched the pack move around for amusement.

"How's the mapping so far?" Kirito asked suddenly.

"Hm? Oh, the mapping…"

"The boss hasn't been found yet?"

"Not yet, but it should be found in the next few days or so…"

"I see…" Kirito kept silent after that.

Both of us enjoyed the music from the NPC Orchestra for a time being before I asked him a question.

"When will you start seeing me as Monica again?"

"Probably never…"

"Why?"

"You know why…"

_Murderess…_

I sighed and lied down, apologizing for bringing it up.

Asuna looks really mature when awake, but she looks really young when she's asleep. I wonder how old she is…

"Let's play a small prank on her, first strike duel while she's asleep…" I suggested while sending the duel invitation to the sleeping figure. Kirito read the notification, pressed on the first strike mode, before using her finger to tap the agree button.

"As long as you don't kill her…"

"Killjoy…" I jokily replied, and was answered with a sword skill straight into my face.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" I tried to rectify the situation before he starts pushing me out of the safe zone.

We waited for Asuna to wake up, planning to strike her only when her head had not fully woken up yet.

The sun had nearly disappeared from the skyline when Asuna woke up. She sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes awake. I took that chance to attack her, Katar raised for a normal downward motion.

Asuna gave a squeak of surprise and horror, her hand moved to draw her entangled rapier. The Katar swiped her cheek, decreasing her health by a small amount. At that moment, a winner's declaration was displayed at the surrounding area.

"No way, The Flash was defeated again?" Some of the clearers nearby exclaimed in shock.

"Good morning! How was your sleep?" I asked with a cheeky smile on my face, Asuna's face turned red with rage.

"Why… you…"

I think now is the best time to run.

I turned towards the teleport gates and began sprinting towards it, Asuna at my heels.

"MONICA! YOU BITCH!"

Totally worth it!

* * *

**22 April 2024, Aincrad 57****th**** floor, Jackson's Dining Restaurant**

While I can claim that I am fast, Asuna has always been faster than me, spending more points on agility. I had almost finished teleporting to the Monster Town when her multiple linear attacks bombarded on me, sending me flying headfirst into the gate.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you now…" Asuna had threatened me, and my reason was.

"You're not dead?"

She then realized that my health was still safely at green, and quickly figured out that it was a first strike duel there. After apologizing to her, she offered a meal in exchange for looking after her while she slept outside her house.

Which brings us to where we are; everyone here was staring at Kirito, since they do not know who he is. They recognize me as 'The Mentor' and Asuna as 'The Lightning Flash'. But they are unable to figure out that Kirito was 'The Black Swordsman' since he had changed his coat again.

"Well… anyway… Thanks for today…" Asuna softly said to the both of us.

"Why so soft? Maybe I should have killed you…" I joked back, angering her again. Seeing the dark looks from both of them, I quickly continued.

"I'm just joking! And we don't want a major player to die now! The boss is going to be found and we need every strong player we can get!" Pacified, both of them just glared at me for a while before speaking to each other.

"It felt like...that was the first time...I slept so soundly since I came here..."

"Is-Isn't that an exaggeration?" Kirito worriedly asked.

"Not at all, it's true. Normally, I'll sleep for 3 hours at most before waking up."

So she does the same thing as me, training hard all the way to the night.

"And it's not because the alarm clock woke you up?"

"Yeah, it's not as serious as insomnia...but I would get a nightmare and end up waking up."

"...I see."

"What level are you now?" I asked her, curious.

"State your own level before asking for people's."

"Level seventy-seven."

"Level eighty." Asuna replied before giving me a smirk while I groaned in defeat.

"Maybe I should stop helping the newbies, I'm always the lowest level in the parties…"

Kirito awkwardly laughed while patting my back.

"Well… how do I put it…? If you ever want to take a nap outside, just tell me." Asuna smiles and nodded to him.

"If there's a day with such great weather settings again, I'll leave it to you."

Seeing Kirito at a loss of words, I gave a small chuckle while the NPC waitress arrived with the food.

All three of us began eating our food, Kirito grumbled about the food after a while.

"Thinking about it, even though it's not beneficial to us nutritionally, why are we eating vegetables?"

"Eh? But it tastes good." I protested.

Asuna elegantly chewed on what looked like lettuce, and argued back.

"It's not disgusting per say...but if only there's mayonnaise or something."

"Ahh… that's right. I agree."

"And salad sauce...tomato sauce... and..."

"SOY SAUCE!" All three of us exclaimed at the same time before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"KYAAAAHHH!"

"What!?" I spun towards the direction of the scream, running out of the door the next instance. Kirito and Asuna trailed behind, hands on the hilt of their weapons.

As we ran out to the road, another ear-piercing scream like that of silk being ripped could be heard.

On the north side of the plaza, there was a towering stone building that looked like a church.

A rope was dangling down from the display window in the middle of the second floor, and at the front end of a loop, a man was dangling there.

That was not an NPC. Perhaps that guy had just came back from hunting since he had full plate armor with a large helmet on him. The rope was sinking into the armor on the neck, but the players gathered at the plaza weren't screaming in fear for this reason. In this world, there's no such thing as dying from suffocation with the use of a rope-type item.

The source of fear for everyone was what stabbed deeply into the man's chest, a black short spear.

The guy had both hands grabbed onto the grip of the spear as his mouth opened and closed. During this time, the wound on his chest continued to give out a red flash effect like that spilling blood and as it kept flickering.

In other words, at this moment, the man's HP was decreasing bit by bit. It was the Pierce Damage over Time trait that only a few of the piercing weapons had.

It looked like the black short spear was a weapon that focused on continuous damage. I caught sight of a countless number of spikes sprouting out from halfway down its shaft.

"Pull it out!" Kirito yelled at the man. Asuna looked for an entrance from the building. Finding one, she called Kirito to catch him while she entered the building to cut the rope.

As Kirito made his way towards the man, the eyes peeking from the bottom of the large helmet worn by the man suddenly widened and stared at a certain spot in the air. Most likely, it was his own HP bar. Or more accurately, the moment it turned to zero.

Mingled into the shouts and screams of the crowd in the plaza, the man seemed to have yelled out something.

And then, a flash of blue light dyed the night sky blue together alongside the sound of countless glass breaking. I could only look up blankly at the polygon fragments that scattered. I held in the urge to smile at the array of polygons.

The rope that lost the object it was holding slammed against the wall. A second later, the black short spear that fell let out a heavy metallic sound as it stabbed into the stone floor on the ground.

The screams let out by countless players overwhelmed even the peaceful sounding BGM that filled the town.

Both Kirito and I stared at the spot where the man died, thoroughly shocked. Recovering from it, we searched the skies for the declaration of the winner, or the culprit of the murder in this case.

This was the main street, which meant that it's right smack inside the effective range of the Anti-Criminal Code. If the player HP was damaged and even resulted in death here, there's only one possibility.

The person had agreed to a decisive mode duel and lost.

There was no other way that I know of.

In that case, with the death of the man, there should have been a huge system window like Winner/name, match time minutes/seconds appearing nearby. If we found the window, anyone could immediately tell who the person who used the short spear to kill the man in full-plate armor was.

However, the system window did not appear in the plaza at all.

Even after Kirito asked the crowds to search for the system message, it was not found. Maybe the duel started inside?

"Asuna! Is the winner shown there!?" I yelled into the church.

"None! There's no system window, or even anyone else inside!"

"Why..." Kirito moaned while futilely looking around. A few seconds later, I heard a slight whisper.

"...It's impossible now. It's been more than 30 seconds..."

Gritting his teeth, Kirito stormed into the church where the rope was tied into. I remained outside, using the map to find anyone trying to leave without notice.

Despite our efforts, the culprit still eluded us. Both Kirito and Asuna came out, asking for the eyewitness who saw the incident first. The eyewitness was a girl named Yolko, a friend of Kains, the man who was killed. For some reason, she flinched when she saw Kirito. Asuna substituted in for Kirito when she refused to talk to Kirito.

"Did you see anyone else around?"

After hearing Asuna's question, Yolko immediately quietened down.

She then slowly and clearly nodded.

"Yes...it was just for a moment, but I felt like I saw...someone standing behind Kains..."

That sentence causes me to frown, if there was a person behind Kains, the person should have been seen by Asuna, or blocked by the two players who guarded the entrance. But the two players claimed that nothing collided with them. This mean that the sentence was a lie or the culprit wasted a crystal to escape.

"Was that profile someone you know?"

Yolko closed her lips and pondered for a while, and after a few seconds, shook her head to indicate that she didn't. After seeing her indicate so, it was my turn to ask with my calmest possible voice,

"Well...it may not be the best time to ask this, but do you have any clues...? Like any reason why Kains-san was killed..."

Just like what I was worried about, Yolko immediately stiffened the moment she heard that. It couldn't be helped, since we were asking a girl who just witnessed her friend being killed whether there was any reason for revenge. This question may be rude, but it couldn't be ignored. If she knew of anyone that hated Kains, that would become a powerful clue.

But this time, Yolko shook her head again. Strange…

"I see… sorry…" Kirito simply apologized.

Both Kirito and Asuna escorted Yolko to the nearest inn while I informed the nearby crowd on what we know, and precautions to take. The crowd had dispersed when Kirito and Asuna returned.

"Then...what do we do next?"

Kirito asked Asuna, who immediately answered,

"Let's check the evidence we have first, especially the rope and short spear. If we know its origin, we might be able to find the criminal."

"I see...since we can't find the motive, let's start from the evidence, shall we? In that case, we have to use the Inspection skill. Both of… you probably...never added this skill, right?"

"Nope…"

"I guess you didn't, either...speaking of which..."

At this moment, Asuna's expression started to change. She stared at Kirito and demanded.

"Can you please stop referring to me with you, you, you!?"

"Eh? Ah, I see...then...should I use Asuna-san, Sub-leader, Or the Flash-sama...?"

The last one is how her fan club always called her, I remembered with a giggle. What she thought of that was clearly seen when Asuna's facial expression became tense and she burned Kirito through with a laser stare. She then looked aside and said,

"Just call me Asuna. Didn't you call me that before?"

"Un-Understood."

Kirito obediently nodded and hurriedly dragged the topic back.

"As for the Inspection skill...do you have any friends you know of with it...?"

"Hmm…" She pondered for a while, and quickly shook her head.

"I have a friend, who runs a weapons store, but it's the busiest time at this point, and I really can't ask her to help me out immediately..." She then asked me the same question with her look.

"Most of my friends are front line clearers. Those that aren't are part of the Army…"

"In that case, I'll have to ask the boss of a merchandise shop. That large-axe warrior's proficiency is a little unnerving for me though..."

"Are you talking about...that very tall man? I think he's called...Agil or something, right?"

Asuna asked Kirito while he called out the message window and started typing.

"But the merchandise store should be rather busy now, right?"

"Who cares?"

Kirito replied and immediately pressed the send button. He proceeded to drag us to the teleport gates and to Algade, the city on the fiftieth floor.

The fiftieth floor was packed with merchants from one end to another, each of them trying to sell their wares. Asuna saw an opportunity of be freed of Kirito's grip and moved to buy something from a suspicious hawker.

"Oi, let's move faster...OI!"

Kirito then noticed what she was up to.

"HOW CAN YOU JUST BUY THINGS SO RANDOMLY!"

Asuna merely took a bite of the kebab she had just bought and answered nonchalantly,

"We just ran out after eating only salad. Yup...this tastes good."

She continued to chew and said to him "Take this" as she handed the other kebab in her left hand to Kirito.

"Eh? For me?"

"Didn't I say that I wanted to treat you?"

"Ah...ahh..."

Kirito replied with sorrow, it was understandable since the treat from Asuna ended as a kebab instead since we ran out of the restaurant, causing the system to deduct an amount of money from each of us.

I finished to kehab quickly, and let go of the wrapper to watch it shatter into millions of fragments, the same way when a player died. However, compared to Kains' death, it looked rather pitiful… Kains' death involved a blue flash…

"What's wrong?" Kirito asked, finishing the last of the kehab.

"Remember how Kains died?"

"Yeah… That's why we are here…" He replied while tossing the wrapper away. I snatched it midair.

"No, as in how he shattered?"

"What about it?"

"Watch the wrapper." I stated seriously. Kirito nodded his head and stared at the falling wrapper when Asuna opened the door to Agil's shop.

"Hello…we're here." Damn…

"...I won't entertain guys who aren't customers."

The boss of the grocery store and the axe warrior Agil grumbled with an awkward voice that didn't fit his rough appearance, and then, said to the customers in his shop,

"Sorry, we'll be closing shop for today."

"Ehh!?" On hearing the grumbling, the burly shopkeeper cringed back and apologized as he chased all the customers away. He then called out his shop management menu to close the shop.

The extremely messy racks automatically closed, and the metal doors outside let out a creaking sound before closing up. At this moment, Agil finally turned over to look at me and said,

"I say, Kirito. In the field of business, the most important thing businessmen look for is trust, and the second most important thing is still trust. I'll skip the third and fourth, and for the fifth, if there's a chance, I'll make a killing..."

These strange notes vanished as he noticed the player standing beside me. Agil's beard at the bottom of his bald head shook as he just stood there. Asuna herself was smiling purely as she nodded at him.

"Long time no see, Agil-san. I'm sorry for bothering you at such short notice, but it's urgent, and we really need your help..."

Agil's stern expression immediately eased up and he patted his chest saying to leave it to him, and even served us tea.

What a gentleman, I mused while Kirito concluded the story of the murder.

"Did you say that his HP dropped to zero inside the area? Are you sure it wasn't a duel?"

"In that situation, it was impossible for us not to see the victory declaration screen, so we should be thinking about it in such an aspect. Also...even if it was a duel, the victim was going to have a meal, so it would be impossible for him to accept such a request. Besides, it was in a Decisive duel mode, too."

"He was walking with that girl...Yolko-san before he died, so it's definitely not a «Sleep PK»." Asuna interjected.

"Besides, it's really too complicated to have a sudden duel like this. I think we can consider it to be a planned PK. And...With this..." Kirito explained while materializing the rope and spear. Agil took both items and appraised them.

"This is made by a PC." Agil declared after appraising the three of us immediately pushed our bodies forward and inadvertently cried out.

"Really?"

A PC created item would mean that this weapon was created by a player with the «Smelting Skill». There would definitely be a record of that player's name. Also, this short spear is likely to be a one and only item. Once we directly ask the player, there's a high chance that we can know who ordered it.

"Who's the creator?" I asked, Agil lowered his head as he looked at the window and answered,

"Grimlock...that's how it's romanized. I have never heard of such a person, so at least he isn't a top-rated sword smith. Maybe he's a guy who improved his smelting skills only to forge his own weapons..."

If even the merchant Agil didn't know who this sword smith is, it was obvious that none of us would; and the room entered a short silence again.

"However, we should be able to find that person. If he managed to upgrade his rank to such an extent to create this weapon, he can't possibly be a solo player all the time. If you go and listen to gossip in the middle floors, you'll definitely find someone who teamed up with Grimlock before."

"That's true. There can't possibly be many people like this idiot."

Agil nodded, and together with Asuna, looked at the stupid solo player.

"What? I-I'd occasionally party with other players, too." Kirito weakly defended, pointing at me.

"They've only seen you do that during boss battles." I countered with a sigh.

Kirito remained silent, defeated.

"But...to be honest, even if we find Grimlock, he probably won't say too much to us... At best he won't reveal the information to us easily. If he wants payment for providing information..."

Agil shook his head vehemently while Asuna glared at me

"We'll pay a third each then." We dejectedly consented

Kirito then raise his last question to the stingy merchant.

"It's not much of a clue, but just tell me the name of this weapon."

The bald giant lowered his head for the third time to look at the window, and said,

"Yes...it's called «Guilty Thorn». Which means thorns of sin, right?"

"I see..."

I looked at that spiked short spear again. Of course, the weapon's name is randomly set by the system, so this name itself shouldn't possibly have any human will behind it.

"Guilty...Thorn..."

However, Asuna's murmuring suddenly caused a chill in me.

**23****rd**** April 2024, Aincrad 1****st**** Floor, Starting City's Teleport Gates**

All of us were enveloped in a brilliant blue light before we saw the plaza of the Starting City. Wasting no time, we made our way towards the Black Iron Castle.

The Starting City should hold about a third of the players living in this death game, so I felt that something was wrong when no one was visible besides us.

A group of members from my former guild, Aincrad's Liberation Force saw us and ran towards us, shouting some incoherent words. I turned to the trio and told them to go ahead of me.

The group surrounded me, trying to intimidate me. One of them, possibly the leader of the group, stated.

"I'm Sergeant Caesar of the Aincrad Liberation Force."

What the heck? When did the guild become an Army? Now they are even using the ranks of the Army for their guild, what is Thinker doing? Thinking about this, I replied.

"Monica, Former Member."

He nodded, looking rather haughty, and demanded for me to hand over a portion of my col.

"Why?"

"It is to ensure that we are able to continuously clear the upper floors. We need the Col to upgrade our equipments."

At this, I was horrified. The guild had stopped appearing at the frontlines since the twenty-fifth floor, why are they still making such a statement here? The guild I had known had crumbled into something I could not agree with.

"If you do not comply with this order, you will be thrown out of the Starting City."

I gritted my teeth in anger, who do they think they are; taking away people's Col by extortion, acting as if they are the only clearers of the game.

"You people have changed so much since I've left the guild. Extorting money from the players and lying that you are clearing the floors. What has MMOToday become…"

"What! We are fighting for the freedom of you players! It is your duty to cooperate with us." Caesar replied shakily, surprised at my resistance.

"Really? Then tell me what were the last boss name and its skills? You claim that you are clearing the floors yet if you don't know any of this, I cannot believe you."

"Its… Err…" Caesar is fumbles around with his words, trying to answer it. I scoffed at him.

"I want you to bring me to Thinker. I've a few words to say to him."

* * *

**23****rd**** April 2024, Aincrad 1****st**** floor, MMOToday's Headquarters. Thinker's POV**

I sighed at the amount of paperwork to be done. Ever since Kibaou took over the guild this year, I had been reduced to nothing but a figure head. Many of the players seem to be unhappy with me as their leader, and most of my fellow guild mates had either been turned by Kibaou or expelled from the guild, leaving me with no power.

So I was very much surprised when my door opened to reveal Monica bashing the two bodyguards of my room. She stared at me with anger in her eye.

"Hello Thinker."

"H—Hi…"

"Can I ask for an explanation?"

"About the Army?"

"About what made you think extorting Col from the players of the starting city was justified?" She demanded, using a sword skill to force me back into the room before shutting it close.

"Ca—Calm down, Monica. It's not what you think!"

"I am reasonably calm right now. But that may change on what you say next."

I immediately spilled my story, and Monica seems to have directed her anger from me to Kibaou.

"That bastard, he really has a death wish…"

"Yes, but I can't do anything about it…"

"Damn, if we can't do anything directly to him, we'll do it indirectly. That man deserves to be humiliated."

"What can we do?" Monica thought for a bit before answering.

"We'll stop him from taking anyone's money first. Do you have the contacts of those expelled from the guild? I'm still in touch with Sanderson, Midnight and Jackson,"

"Midnight is with them, so he's out. The players who were expelled were mostly front line players, so including your group, we only have just enough for blocking off every floor that The Army controls."

"You're calling the group The Army? No sense of belonging to your guild now?" Monica questioned while sending messages to her two friends.

"I can't call it my guild since I'm always locked in here."

* * *

**24****th**** April 2024, Aincrad 57****th**** floor, Martin Teleport Gates.**

Kirito, Asuna and I met up at the teleport gates of Martin to share what we know. Apparently the people from the Divine Dragon Alliance met up with Kirito to take away the spear that killed Kains, which was rather suspicious for me.

"There's really this person. The big long spear user, right?"

"That's right. He gives the vibe that he's the chairman of a high school snatchaway club."

"There's no such club."

Asuna immediately refuted this little inspiration of humor Kirito tried to give since morning, and seemed to be thinking about something as she cupped the mug with café au lait.

"...Don't tell me that guy is the culprit."

"I can't conclude that boldly, but probably not. If he took the murder weapon back because he's scared that someone found the clue, he might as well not be there. I think that the spear is something left behind by the culprit."

"I see...you're right. That killing method and the name of the weapon is Guilty Thorn...instead of calling it a normal PK, it's more suitable to call it a public execution..."

On hearing Asuna mutter in a depressed manner, I nodded to agree with her.

This isn't a random PK, but an execution on Kains. And there must have been something between Kains, Grimlock and Schmitt.

"In other words, the motive is revenge, no, judgment. That Kains-san once committed some form of sin, and he was killed as punishment. This should be what the killer is trying to get at."

"In other words, Schmitt shouldn't be the culprit, but the one the criminal is after, is it? He did something with Kains-san, and started to panic and take action after his partner was killed..."

"Once we know that past, we'll likely know who the culprit is. However...this may just be an act by a criminal. Let's not get too subjective for now."

"You're right, especially when we're asking Yolko. Are you sure you won't help us anymore? This would affect you the most."

I sighed at what he was referring to. Since the start of the death game, I've never rented any rooms, sleeping on the roofs of buildings at night for safety. With a new possible PK method that may kill me, I may not be able to sleep at night with this arrangement. However…

"I'm staying with Klein and the Fuurinkazan nowadays, Kirito. So I'm safe from the PKing."

"Ah… I see… Well, I'll see you once you give that cactus-head a beating of a lifetime!" Kirito tells me before they teleport to meet up with Yolko. Meanwhile, I teleported back to the Starting City to ruin Kibaou's plans with Thinker.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading, it be nice if someone would review this chapter! *Stares at other stories which were started earlier than me yet have more reviews* Damn it!**


	12. Eugene of the Shattered Defense

**Hello again! This story is going to end soon. As you can see, we've reached October 2024, which means about two more stories before it ends. Don't worry, though. The sequel is in production as we speak!**

**Shout out to **_**Kent Rigel **_**who gave me a detailed critism in my story. Because of this, I got back my drive to finish the story. I've edited both Chapter 8, 9 and 10 and hopefully improve it more. **

**Also, happy New Year guys (and girls)! It seems that Judgment day is over for most of you, but mine has been post-poned to 10 of January. My examination results will be released on that day… *shudders***

**Monica's stats (19/6/2024)**

Level: 82

Strength: 82

Agility: 164

Health/Base: 11 558 /2358hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv885, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv782, Familiar Recovery Lv814, Night Vision Mastered, Acrobatics Mastered, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv589, Sprint Mastered, Musical Instrument Lv201, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv999

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Silver Chainmail+6 (4D, 2Q): Strength+40 (800+200hp), reduces speed by 5-2%. Durability: 800+200, HP+3500. No upgrades remaining.

Silver Bracers +5 (3D, 2Q): Strength +20 (400+150hp), reduces speed by 6-2%. Durability: 400+150, HP+1500. No upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Howling Gale (Katar) +33 (16S, 15D, 2Q): 660-670+160dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+750. No Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 11: Eugene of the Shattered Defence**

* * *

**19****th**** June 2024, Aincrad 1****st**** Floor, Plaza of Starting City. **

I launched another Critical X on the Army Member in front of me while the rest of them scrambled away. It's been half a year since we started attacking the Army Members anyway, most of them usually ran away when we see them trying to force people to pay 'taxes' for living in this city. Living— more like hiding in my opinion— in this digital city already cost some Col for rent, and now the Army wants them to pay even more Col.

The Army was pretty furious when they finally notice that some players were stopping them. They demanded for us the leave them be and focus on clearing the floors. But many of the front liners were confused on what they were talking about, since it was actually done by former members of the Army who hated the guild as it is now. The group consists of Thinker, Yulier and Bznboy, who acts as our informers for intercepting their patrols, Sanderson, Isabella, Gabriella, Silica and Me.

When nothing changed after they demands, they started sending their high ranking players to send us to jail. But since the player's level are extremely high compared to their levels, it is usually met with little success.

Right now, Kibaou must be flooded with reports of failure, since Thinker had also announced to the guild that Kibaou had done nothing to aid the frontline clearers. This has caused a split in the Army, with majority of them supporting Thinker now. Kibaou is now trapped by his own statements, and many of the players are angry with him accumulating wealth for himself only. Since then, the extorting has been significantly reduced and most of our time was still spent training now.

I guess that's it for the day, I mused while making my way towards the Teleport Gates. To my surprise, not only was Thinker and my group here, Kibaou was here, looking extremely angry.

"What are you doing!? That was supposed to be for the frontliners!" Kibaou yelled. Honestly, this man had used that line too many times.

"We don't need that money anyway, killing a monster at the front lines yields ten times more than that amount." I countered with a sigh.

"Even so, every small bit counts!"

"Well, for you since you're the one benefiting the most from it…"

"Krrgh… Why you—"

"—got a problem? Spit it out, you cactus head." I glared at him darkly. Silencing him, I continued.

"Not only do you lie about the Army being the front lines, you even take away their money for no reason. Don't say you are doing it to clear the front lines, because we don't see you there at all. Show me some proper prove that your guild is doing something to clear the game now."

"Bitch…" Kibaou responded with a clack of his teeth again.

"What? No proof at all?"

"I'll show you!" He roared as he stormed off in the direction of Black Iron Castle, the members of the Army gave us dark looks as they went off.

"Looks like they'll try to prove it to us now…" Sanderson muttered under his breath.

"It's all part of the plan, anyway. We need to make him do something reckless before he can lose the rest of his power. It wouldn't be long before he messes up anyway." I explained before teleporting off.

* * *

**20****th**** June 2024, Aincrad 63****rd**** floor, Dwarves' Fortress.**

The next ten floors would be themed 'entering the demon's lair'. This is due to the amount of mountain that surrounded this floor, as did the previous three floors. The boss dungeon is located somewhere at the end of one of the mountains, but we have yet to find the floor boss. The front line is currentlty at floor sixty-five, but both Klein and I needed a better sword to deal a better amount of damage.

Compared to floor sixty-four, where the dwarves assist us at the outskirts of their village, floor sixty-three had us fighting against the dwarves themselves. The boss of the dungeon was 'Muradin the Mountain King', a dwarve who uses dual axes. Kirito was pleasantly surprised when the boss actually activated a Dual Blades sword skill when his life point reached yellow.

The place we were at consists of Dwarven Miner as well as Dwarven Guards, differentiated by their helmets. Dwarven Miners wore a blue chest plate with a yellow helmet while Dwarven Guards wore a red chest plate and orange helmet. They drop an item called Dwarven Metal, which was what we needed to get for Lizbeth, a blacksmith whom Asuna knows very well. Compared to the much harder wolves, these humanoids travel in groups of four Miners and two Archers, making it rather difficult for the front line players to fight them, hence they were let alone until now.

Klein blocked a pair of pickaxes from the Miners while his two friends countered the offense with their own attack on their neck, causing them to shatter into polygons. Issin distracted the other two Miners while Dale and I eliminated the Guards. I used redirected the crossbow of the Guardsman before using a Shadow Stab at their neck as well.

"That should be the last of it, right?" I asked while drinking a health potion. The Dwarven crossbow shot me a couple of times in the arms, reducing my health points by fifteen percent each. Klein opened up his inventory list to confirm the number of Dwarven Metals we had.

"I'd say we have enough…" He replied before sheathing Furyokuhatsuden, an katana that boosts agility and 'looks cool' in Klein's opinion.

"Klein! Another group is coming!" Kunimittz, or rather, Kuni reported as he pointed to two squadrons heading towards us.

"Crap, let's do a strategic retreat!" Isn't that just running?

All of us started running ("It's a strategic retreat!" –Klein) from the group of twelve Dwarfs, luring more groups in the process. It would have been fine if only one of the groups were not at the entrance of the mountain.

"Klein, what should we do in this situation?" Dynamm asked warily.

"In… In this case… we… we will fight—" Klein heroically announced while raising his blade.

"— Good grief, Klein, don't do that! We have teleport crystals for a reason…" I interrupted his speech with a bop on his head.

"Fuu… and I wanted to make it look cool too…" Klein whined before taking his teleport crystal and warping away from the dungeon. The ten others followed suit.

"Get out of the way!" I yelled at Harry One when one of the Miners leapt up to strike him. I dashed in front of him to intercept the attack.

"Tha-Thanks, Monica!" He stuttered as he teleported.

I observed the monsters while the frost wolves placed themselves between me and the mobsters. They continued using Feral Edge and Feral Bite to force the Dwarfs back while I took out a teleport crystal.

"Teleport! Nippon!" I shouted calmly and smirked at the furious faces of the Dwarfs. Bathed in a sapphire light, I relaxed, unaware of a crossbow bolt heading towards me.

I spotted something black in heading towards me, the object kept getting larger and larger, or is it heading towards me? Oh wait, could it be…

"Ah!" I yelped when I realized what it was, a dwarven crossbow bolt had warped with me into floor ten of Aincrad. I'm not sure if the inner area code is in effect yet, so I raised my Katar to defend against it.

_Crraack…_

Oh snap…

The bolt penetrated through the metal blade, shattering it into multiple small fragments as well as two large ones. Luckily, the blade had deflected the bolt from hitting my neck, which would probably kill me.

Instead, the bolt shot upwards, giving me a nasty shock on my Eye. My vision blacked out after that.

Status effect: Blindness.

I gave an extremely loud curse to all those around to hear.

* * *

**20****th**** June 2024, Aincrad 48****th**** Floor, Lizbeth's Shop. Klein's POV**

"Welcome to Lizbeth's smith shop, how can I help you?" A well-endowed pinkette greeted me, she's so cute!

"Hello… My name is Klein! Twenty four years old! Bachelor!" I spoke my usually sentence.

"Ye—yes?" She answered me with a look of confusion. Ah damn, Klein! You're in a relation with Monica already!

"Ah, never mind. I'm here to buy a Katar." I stated my request straight away.

"Hmm… A Katar? You're trying to get a date with Monica, aren't you?" Lizbeth questioned after thinking for a bit. Her stare was pretty scary, so I quickly rectified the situation.

"No! Not at all! She's just got blinded and her weapon broke while with me, so I wanted to get her another weapon…"

"Did you check if the weapon could be repaired?" Weapons could be repaired? I didn't know that.

"Ah… I don't think it can at this time, the rest of the weapon is gone…"

Blindness is a status effect that can last for almost two days. During that time, you cannot see anything except for your UI, so it makes training extremely hard for anyone. She sent us a message for help since she could not see what was in front of her. Of course, we safely escorted her to our headquarters. The worse part of this effect is that anyone player can cause that effect when striking the eyes, but the duration of it depends on whether poison was used or not.

"Well… As long as she can pay…" She sighed "I wanted to try using That Metal from the fifty-fifth floor, the mysterious metal is said to be guarded by a White Dragon. " Ah, but no one managed to find it, so it's impossible.

"I thought that metal didn't exist? We'd actually brought Dwarven Metal from the sixty-third floor, couldn't we use that instead?" On hearing that, Lizbeth folded her arms and angrily replied.

"Dwarven Metal? Don't joke with me! What Dwarven Metal!? There's no such metal!"

Eh?

"But… Look!" I tried to persuade her, materializing one of the metal plates. To me, it looks like some burnt metal chestplate, but I heard that some players made items from it. I assumed it could make a awesome Katana that I could use.

"It's a trash mat…" She dead panned at my weak argument.

So… it was a lie… I knelt on the ground and cried.

"So, shall we get started? We'll go to the sixty third floor to get the Adaminium."

"Wait, which monster?"

"The Dwarven Soldiers and Knights."

"So they're the one who drop minerals?"

"Don't be stupid, the metal is extracted from the ores."

* * *

**20****th**** June 2024 Aincrad 63****rd**** floor, Thunder Plains**

"Once again, really sorry to bring you along…" I apologized to my guild mates. There were twelve members altogether, including Monica. So we usually can split into two parties. All of us planned to get our guild into the top few guilds of the front line. So far we haven't lost a man yet, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Lizbeth is a mace-user, so she is not able to deal as much damage as Monica could. So I will join Kagemune's group while Morikawa joins her group.

"Right… Those in Lizbeth's group focus on protecting Lizbeth while she gathers the material. My group will focus on eliminating any groups that threaten Lizbeth-sama's work!" I announced to the rest of my party.

"Yosh! Protect Lizbeth-sama's with our life!" They screamed in union.

"Ooi… You make it sound as if you don't plan to survive this… Besides, we have teleport crystals incase we are surrounded."

Why do all the girls shoot down my grand speeches…?

* * *

**20****th**** June 2024, Aincrad 63****rd**** floor, Thunder Mountains.**

"Reaver!" I yelled out the skill name as I beheaded the short soldier. We were in the Thunder Mountains, the boss dungeon of the sixty third floor.

"Take down the squad on the right, Kagemune! Lizbeth's group, protect her!"

"Yosh!" They replied with enthusiasm. Lizbeth just sighed.

"I'm not going to stop them…"

I blocked the vertical strike from the Dwarven Knight before countering with a Horizontal. The knight stumbled back from the attack, and I continued the assault with another Reaver. His lifepoint only decreased by twenty percent, until I finished it with a Hiogi. A subtle crack was heard from the Furyokuhatsuden, but I didn't notice it until much later.

"Alright, I'm done here." Lizbeth announced, assisting Morikawa in one of the Dwarven combat.

"Alright! Let's move!" I shouted while delivering a Gengetsu on a trio of Soldiers.

We headed to the left path of where we were, taking down each Dwarven Soldier or Knight as quickly as we could. Anything spare time we have is for using potions.

A Dwarven squadron suddenly appeared in front of us, their weapons glowing with sword skills.

"Halt!" I told my guild mates alo0ng with Lizbeth, we stopped and watched as the Dwaves attempted to hit us with their skills, failing miserably as they charged it up too early. Quickly, we attacked their weak point, which was the chest, and moved on.

"There's another ore on our right, Klein!" Morikawa, our vanguard, announced to us.

"Got it! We'll do the same here then!"

"I'll be in your care then!" Lizbeth shouted as she made her way towards the orange rock, Kagemune and his group moved to surround her while we moved to intercept another squadron.

Each Dwarven squad consists of six units like the Dwaven miners. But they consist of one Knight and five Soldiers. The Knights dress in full metal armors while the Soldiers had chain mail with partial metal plates. Along with that, there is also a four-man squad of Dwaven Gunners, who had yellow chest plate and uses muskets to shoot at us. The musket does more damage than the crossbow the Dwarven Guards used, but takes a longer time to reload.

"Dale, Issin, use your spears."

"Roger!" They yelled in succession as they activated Calvary Rush.

"Harry, Kuni, you're with me, take out the Soldiers while Dynamm takes out the Knight." I commanded my guild while charging headfirst towards the Soldiers, Tsumujiguruma ready to repel all their strikes.

"You got it!" The trio replied and moved to their position.

Harry readied his Katana to use Tsujikaze to eliminate two of the soldiers from the side while Kunimittz took down the other down with his Curved Sword. With the freeze time over, I activated Hiogi again to defeat the last two.

"The Knight is down!" Dynamm announced with his curved blade held high, we followed in succession.

"Onto the next one!" I screamed as I headed to the right, my party following behind.

I swung downwards with my katana on a Dwarven Knight, breaking through his Broadsword with a crack.

Crack!?

Immediately, I turned around to parry the next strike from the Dwaven Soldier behind me, but both of our swords broken on contact. I pummeled the dwarf with the hilt of my Katana.

"My sword broke! Retreating!" I told the guild.

"I'm done too! We have enough materials for Monica's Katar!" Lizbeth replied as she smashed one of the Soldier with her mace. All of us started pulling out our crystals.

"Teleport! Lindus!"

* * *

**21****st**** June 2024, Aincrad 48****th**** Floor, Lizbeth Smith Shop. Klein's POV**

"Well… This isn't too bad, I guess…" Lizbeth sighed as she looked at the materials we had gotten. We had almost enough for two Adaminium Alloys, but Lizbeth could make one.

I told her to make a Katar weapon for Monica, since that was what we had planned. Lizbeth tapped the red-hot orange alloy twelve times, and it formed into a rather sinister looking, three-pronged Katar.

Lizbeth picked it up, and appraised the weapon. The name was Devil's Touch, with a damage range from eight to nine hundred damage alone. It was considerably higher than Howling Gale, and had more durability than it.

"Here you go… But what about your Katana?"

"Don't worry about it, I have a spare one at the guild storage, it is weaker than the last one, though…"

"I should make one as well… But I don't have enough materials… Another time, maybe?"

"Ah, sure. I'll be in your care if so. See you another time."

I turned around and headed towards the teleport gate.

* * *

**21****st**** June 2024, Aincrad 10****th**** floor, Fuurinkazan Headquarters. **

If what I can recall about the tenth floor, the floor is themed around Japanese culture. Many of the monsters are Katana wielders, with spearmen and archers at the Thousand Snake's Castle. The boss of the floor is predictably Orochi, the Serpent Demon. He is guarded by ten Corrupted Samurai, Katana users dressed in full samurai armor. After we cleared the floor, Klein and his guild mates tried on the armor of the Corrupted Samurais, and looked pretty ridiculous compared to their Japanese Armor now. They changed their armor somewhere in floor fifty, and now look much more cooler than during that time.

Ahh… I'm so bored… This effect sucks… I opened up my menu list and looked at my inventory list. I haven't looked at it the whole time. I opened up the menu and looked at the item's I had from the hunt two days ago. The Dwarven Metal has been given to Klein for my new weapon, but I had some good equipment as well.

First one I had gotten was a Katana called Karakurenai, with a damage range from seven hundred and seventy to nine hundred and thirty. A pretty wide range, but it can be upgraded sixty times compared to Klein's Furyokuhatsuden, which could only be upgraded thirty times. I guess I could give this to Klein to make up for my blunder. I just hope it is good enough for the time taken to make a new one.

The next one was a helmet-type headband called Haganenuno. The headband felt cold and metallic, and I also could not replace the dragon headdress I had. I'll probably sell this to Egil or Lizbeth.

The last equipment was useful for me, Skeleton Bracers, but it didn't come from the Dwarves, but from the Skeleton Knights that I fought with Kirito last night. How did I miss it? It had better reflection ability than my Draconian Shinguards.

"I'm back…" Klein's voice sounded from the right, wasn't I sitting down with my back facing the entrance?

"Welcome back, Klein…" I sighed while opening my eyes and seeing pitch black still.

"I've gotten a Katar for you, it's called Devil's Touch and does higher damage than the Howling Gale, I hope you like it."

"Ah… Arigato…" I mutter while blushing. For some reason, I keep blushing when Klein is around…

"I should thank you for taking your time with making my weapon… I've gotten a Katana in the previous hunt, so… I was thinking… of passing it to you…" I spoke while facing the direction where Klein's voice was heard from. I just wished the effect would be over quickly.

"Really? Can I see it?" Klein's voice resounded from my front this time, so I turned left to address him.

"Oh, sure… I also got a headband that doubles as a helmet apparently." I stated while materializing the two items.

"Wow… It looks cool… Thank you Monica!" Klein replied happily, making me blush again when I pictured his face. Why do I keep blushing…

I opened my eyes again, seeing blurry images, a red object is in front of me, probably Klein.

"Ah, I can see something…"

"Really!?"

"Ah… You're in front of me right?"

"Un… how many fingers am I holding?" Klein held up his hand, but I can't make out his fingers.

"Er… three?" I guessed, Klein shook his head while patting my head. The image sharperns up, allowing me to see his face, but my eyes are still giving me blurry images. Relief washes over me when I saw his concerned look.

Wait, why am I relieved? I thought to myself while trying to shake away the blush that is creeping up again.

"Monica? What's wrong? You're rather red…"

"No! It's nothing…"

The images are now quite sharp, like before. I can see Klein crouched over me, still pretty concerned, I guess?

I guess I'm rather relieved that I can see again…

"Monica, I'm really happy that you can see again… Thank you for the Katana too! I broke the other one while gathering the materials for your Katar." Klein's face filled up my vision, delighted sparkling throughout his eyes. I tried to contain the blush on my face vainly.

"It's really nothing…"

"Um… Excuse me! But would… would you…" Klein tries to tell me something while I got out of my seat and tested out the Katar. It felt lighter than Howling Gale, but stronger for some reason…

"Yes?"

"Would you go out with me? I know you've already rejected me once, but that was about two years ago…" Klein yelled out with his head bowed. He has already asked? But whe—Oh…

"At that time, I'd told you that we could start once we gotten out of the death game, right…?"

"Yes… "

"…But I've realized that we may die before that… So, it's better to get to know each other better… right…?"

It's true; the first sixty floors had a casualty in each boss fight, so at least sixty players have already died from clearing the tower. As of now, there about a thousand, five hundred clearers, with four-fifth of them mapping and engaging bosses actively. Who can say that we would not be the next ones to fall?

Klein brightens up when I agreed to it, and hugs me tightly.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading, leave a review if you like it! Managed to snag 3 reviews this week compared to my usual 2 reviews, lets go for 4 this time!**


	13. In Hell's view

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. On the other hand, this story, any character not mentioned in the novel and some systems in the game are mine!**

**Monica's stats (15/10/2024)**

Level: 89

Strength: 89

Agility: 178

Health/Base: 16 460 /2526hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv912, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv899, Familiar Recovery Lv895, Night Vision Mastered, Acrobatics Mastered, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv611, Sprint Mastered, Musical Instrument Lv404, Parry Lv342, (Unique Skill) Beast Master Lv999

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Fenrir's Leather Tunic+8 (6D, 2Q): Strength+50 (1000+300hp) Agility +40(80hp), No speed reduction. Durability: 1600+300, HP+5500. 13/25 upgrades remaining.

Skeletal Bracers +4 (3D, 1Q): Strength +37 (740+150hp) Agility +22 (44hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 800+150. Reflects 70% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+3500. 24/30 upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Devil's Touch (Katar) +24 (16S, 15D, 2Q): 750-770+160dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+750. 24/60 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

* * *

**Chapter 12: In Hell's view**

It's been almost been two years since the death game started. For the first half of that year, I'd existed between the front lines of the game and in the Army before it changed, sharing all sorts of information between the middle level players about the front line. Thanks to that, the front line consists of a thousand members working to clear the game, though about seven hundred are doing it actively. Around three thousand had died since the game started, slightly less than a quarter of them were frontline clearers and we have twenty six more floors to go.

With that said, Argus must have already been disbanded from all the compensation that they have given out to the families of the players. Which makes me wonder why is the game still going on. I do not believe that the servers are actually not part of the company, so it must be hidden very well since we are still stuck in the game.

It's a pity that humans adapt to their surroundings. Even now I worry about the future when the game has been finally cleared. All of us are so used to the systems of the game that we will probably have to undergo rehabilitation before we can finally feel free. VRMMOs may probably no longer exist after this incident.

I often wonder where Kayaba is. Is he in the game, waiting for us to complete the game? Or is he outside, in the real world, with us forgotten by the rest. Kirito suspects that the last boss in actually Kayaba's avatar in the game, but I do not think he would do something like that.

Currently, the players are split into four categories: Those who wait, Army Members, Criminals, and Players

Those who wait are players who hide around in the starting city, trying to stay alive until outside help reaches us. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about a third of the player populations are those who wait.

The Army Members are players who belong in the guild, MMOToday. However, Kibaou had changed it into his personal army who support his ideas. One-Third of the Army Members are players who ran out of Col to hide in houses. They believe in the concept of individualism, where players who do not do much have to contribute to those who are actually doing something, meaning the Army Members. They go around the Starting City, extorting money from the level one players around there. But a few of the frontline players as well as middle level players are doing as much as we can to prevent that.

The players consist of thirty percent of the trapped members, and one third of the members are frontline clearers. These players play the game as it is meant to be played, and are the ones who encounter death the most often as well. To the other groups except for the last one, we are the heroes of this trap.

And the last group consists of less than a thousand players. These players are Criminals, stealing from the players or the waiters. Once they were larger, even having groups that kill players for the fun of it. Most of them are either dead or imprisoned as of now. So we do not have to worry about them.

The floors are cleared much slower than before, taking about two weeks to go to the next floor. It used to be one floor cleared every ten days or so, until the twenty fifth floor. Every player's level was high enough for the next ten floors for the first few months of the game. Now both the average player level and the monster level range are about the same.

With that said, the current front line is floor seventy-four, and it's coming to an end sooner than we thought.

* * *

**15****th**** October 2024, Aincrad 10****th**** floor, Fuurinkazan Headquarters.**

I replayed the recording crystal that I had first obtained, sighing in thought. The first recording I had made contained all information about me in the real life, from my name to my age to even my company name which probably had already fired me. This is a part of me that I had placed here to focus on what I had to do, to clear the game. Once in a while, I will play the message in my room of the Fuurinkazan's headquarters as everyone nearby could hear the recording crystal. When I play the message, it will always remind me of what I am fighting for, with its meaning differing slightly over time. Looking back at the time where I first recorded this, I find it rather strange for the past me to think of myself only.

Now, I just want to get as many players out of here, if it requires me to die, I would do so. A killer like me deserves to be killed anyway…

"Monica, are you ready?" Klein's voice echoed after he knocked on the door. Placing the crystal in my storage, I shook myself out of my thoughts and opened the door.

"I'm coming."

I entered the main hall of the Japanese Castle. Klein and the other guild members were there, all fully dressed for today's mapping. Nodding to the other ten members, I consulted Klein.

"So, we're mapping the dungeon, Hell's Pupils, am I correct?"

"Un, the informants have confirmed that the dungeon's we had gone to are completed and that's the most likely dungeon to have the floor boss."

It is not like there were a large number of dungeons that hasn't been completed mapped out yet on this floor. The floor bosses are getting harder and harder to find, so usually the front liners split into their guilds and mapped separate dungeons. But Fuurinkazan is a small guild on the front lines, so we collaborated with all the lesser guilds such as X-Legends, Fumaningun (Which no one liked) and Phoenix Wings.

"All known monsters do not have any notable traits as of yet, so we need to take care lest we'll be swarmed by monsters." Klein explained the dungeon to the members, sharing the dungeon map with all players.

"Everyone has the map? Okay, let's go!" Klein roared to give enthusiasm to the guild members, who responded in kind.

We reached the teleport gates and most of our guild mates had teleported to the front line, I was about to do it myself when Klein approached me. It was a well known fact that Klein and I are in a relationship, albeit a rather strange one.

"Monica, don't die on me today…"

"You'd better worry about yourself first, I'll be fine." I replied with a grin. Klein returned the smile before he warped of to floor seventy-four.

That man may be a womanizer, but at least he's concerned about me, I observed as I teleported and saw him flirting with a female front liner. I bopped his head with my fist and dragged him towards our destination. Beowulf and his fellow wolves followed in anticipation.

* * *

**15****th**** October 2024, Aincrad 74****th**** floor, Hell's Pupil.**

Pentagon-Stab… Duck… Armor Pierce… Rapid Bite…

I dodged a Horizontal Square before meeting the next strike with my own Vertical Square. The Skeletal Swordsman was knocked off balance in that attack.

"Dale, switch with me!" I blurted to the spear user next to me. Nodding his head, he activated Savage Fulcrum on the Demonic Servant in front of me while I went low and activated Rising Shadow on the other Demonic Servant, the indigo-colored skill penetrating through the ribcage of the skeleton.

"Nice job, Monica!" Dale complimented while I went forward to assist Klein with the battle against the Shadow Acolyte. I activated Shadow Stab when Klein knocked it off balanced with Reaver, shattering the monster in a dull black sword attack.

"Whew… that sure was tiring…" Klein complained as he rubbed his forehead with the forearm of his sword arm. All of our healths were in the yellow zone, so we switched with Morikawa and trailed closely behind the second party.

"If it is so tiring fighting against these monsters, surely the boss monster would be like the one in floor nineteen…" Kunimittz shuddered at the deduction.

"It'll be more aggressive than that chicken…" I put in my thoughts on it as well.

"The next area is cleared of monsters, but there are two players there though…" Morikawa's voice echoed from the black cliffs in front of us.

"Eh? But we're the ones doing the mapping today, are they lost or something?" Klein wondered as we went forwards to greet them.

Like Morikawa had said, there were two people, one fully dressed in black while another in the red and white attire of the Knights of Blood Oath, or KK as it called now. These two players were well known in at the front lines as 'The Black Swordsman' and the 'Flash'.

"Oh, Kirito! It's been a while!"

The boy jerked his head towards us, a smile appearing on his face as he saw Klein.

"You're still alive, Klein?" Klein's eyebrow probably twitched when he heard that, but I cannot see it from my angle.

"You're as foul-mouthed as ever, Why are you here… In a… par…ty…"

Klein paused mid step as he saw the sub-commander of the front lines, I don't understand why though.

"Ah… you've probably already met each other during the boss fights, but I'll introduce you two anyway. Asuna, this is Klein from the guild, Fuurinkazan. Klein, Asuna from the guild, Knight of Blood Oath."

Please don't think about it…

"Ahh… Nice to meet you." Klein said after much thought, and I gave a sigh of relief.

"Likewise, Klein." Asuna greeted with a cheerful smile on her face. Both of them were doing their best to ignore my presence, and choose instead on getting to know the other guild members.

_I woke up to Kirito lifting me a foot off the ground, screaming something incoherent to me. The guild place was wrecked with all the traps. Asuna was at my right, tears staining her face and hands covering her mouth and nose. Heathcliff and the Knight of Blood Oath were behind her, weapons drawn and directed at me while the Divine Dragon Alliance was doing the same on my left. Two Fuurinkazan members grabbed Kirito on his shoulders, and he let me down, giving me a hard shove before walking past me._

I lowered my head and tried to entertain myself with the designs on the floor while greetings were exchanged between the two groups. Footsteps echoed down on the left, alerting me of new clearers of in the dungeon.

"Kirito-kun, its The Army!"

True enough; the much hated grey armors were present on their avatars along with dark green cloaks, the helmet covering part of the guild member's faces. From the exhausted looks on the players, they must be lower leveled than all of us. Is Kibaou the leader of this group?

One of the players, presumably the leader of the group, stepped up to Kirito, and firmly spoke after taking off his helmet.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Corbatz of the Aincrad Liberation Force."

Kirito gaped at the last few words, but recovering quickly, he replied.

"Kirito, Solo."

Corbatz nodded to him and asked rather arrogantly.

"Have you mapped the area ahead of here?"

"Yeah… I've mapped the area all the way up to the boss room."

"Hn… Then I hope you would supply us with the mapping data."

As with all the members of The Army, they are completely oblivious to the difficulty of mapping dungeons.

"What!? Supply you with it!? You bastard, do you even know how hard mapping is!?" Klein demanded in a hoarse voice. Corbatz raised a single eyebrow at his words, and replied without much thought.

"We are fighting for the freedom of players like you; it is your duty to cooperate with us."

Both Asuna and Klein rose up, furious at what he had said.

"Wait a second, how could you..."

"You… you bastard..."

"Yeah… Sure… take away everything from the lower level players and saying the same words, you must be insane if you think your wealth can help you clear the game." Corbatz turned his head to me in surprise, but his face changed from shock to delight when he saw me.

"Well… after the boss is defeated by us, you would have no choice but to let us continue." He leered at me. I scoffed at his reply.

"If equipments are the only thing needed to clear the boss, we would have cleared it two years ago… It's up to you Kirito." Kirito snapped out of his musings and replied.

"Okay."

"Hey! You're being way too kind Kirito!"

"I don't have any plans to sell the maps for money, anyway." Kirito replied to Klein when he commented on his approval. Corbatz requested a trade to him and he accepted it, passing his the map data of the dungeon.

"Thank you for your cooperation. You are free to watch us defeat the boss without a struggle." Corbatz boasted to all of us, but more to me.

"Some advice from me, you're better off not attacking that boss. Your men must be tired out coming all this way" Kirito offered.

"Beating him with such a small party would only happen in dreams." I continued.

"Well, it's a dream that's about to come true. My men aren't such crybabies to be tired out by something like this!" He mocked in reply.

Looking at his men, sitting on the floor and panting, I highly doubt so.

"Get up, you useless pieces of trash!' Corbatz screamed at them when he saw them collapsed on the floor. The two parties of Army Members stood up shakily and reformed two columns. I gave a sigh and concluded

"So they aren't part of your men, then? You might want to do that."

"Humph, laugh all you want, interloper." Corbatz stated without turning back at us. He gestured for them to start marching, walking behind them.

"… I wonder if they'll be okay…" Asuna lamented after they disappeared out of sight

"They're going to fight a boss with a third of a raid party, what gave you the idea that they'll be okay…" I moaned at her stupidity.

"They're not really foolish enough to do that, are they?"

"They're probably that idiotic…"

"Then, we should help them…" Asuna got up to chase after them, and set off with all of us behind her.

* * *

**15****th**** October 2024, Aincrad 74****th**** floor, The Gleam Eye's Gate**

"…Maybe they've already used their crystals to escape?" Klein suggested, since we were almost at the boss room and have not made contact with Corbatz' contingent.

"I don't think that's possible, Klein. We've way behind them after those Lizard men came by." I sighed at his ridiculous yet hopeful suggestion. We sped up to try stopping them from attempting to defeat the boss, but it was too late.

"Ah… Aaahh!" A voice resounded from the opened doors, implying the worse.

"Oh no…" Kirito paled from the voice, and rushed forward.

"No…!" At the same time, Asuna screamed with fear, overtaking Kirito easily with her speed and watching the group gets decimated from the two-horned demon.

Beowulf's scan skill revealed the name as 'The Gleam Eyes'. It towered over any human player around us and carried a gigantic 'one-and-a-half' Zanbato sword which it used to bat away the Army Members. The worst thing was that it stood between the Army Players and the twin doors, effectively cutting off a route of escape for them.

"Hey! Are you guys alright!?" Kirito screamed across the room, prompting several members to look up in relief. But we are a group of fourteen players, even less than the number of army men in combat.

Four of the Army members charged forward with their spears raised, stabbing into the blue hide of The Gleam Eyes, and reducing his life points by a scratch. In response, it swiped its tail at them, knocking them into the air before pummeling them away with his fist. Three of them survive the attack with very low health while another shattered.

"What are you doing!? Teleport away!" I screamed into the massacre. A young man looked up at us, fear cleanly shown on his face.

"The… The crystals… They aren't working!" He cried, giving us the intensity of the situation. An anti-crystal field in a boss battle is impossible to defeat. We relied heavily of the crystals to keep us alive. Is this the end of the road for us!?

"Corbatz! Let's get out of here! We can't defeat the boss at this rate!" Another man pleaded with The Sergeant, who just scoffed at his plea.

"What are you saying? The word retreat does not exist for the Liberation Force! Fight on!" He kicked the man away, and drew his own sword. The sword was clearly not meant for combat as seen from the amount of decoration on the hilt. He rushed forward, sword posed for a white sword skill and moved to defeat the boss, several of his men following behind.

"Don't!" Kirito yelled at them in vain.

The six men attacked the shin of the men uselessly before the Zanbato came down of them, shattering all of them into polygons. I counted the number of men left, and gasped at the number of casualties. Of the sixteen players that went in, only half of them are alive.

What should I do? We do not have enough players to defeat the boss, but we can't do anything to rescue those players. They weren't happy with attacking The Gleam Eyes… they should not suffer like so…

If only the other guilds were here…

"No… No more… No!" Asuna cried as she charged towards the blue titan, rapier drawn and ready to strike.

"Asuna!" Kirito screamed in horror before charging after her. The twelve of us watched them run towards the boss, not sure whether to help them or not.

"Eh, whatever…" Klein sighed after a while. We then ran in to assist Kirito.

Asuna attacked with as many linear strikes as she could in a second, drawing attention from the blue demon. The Gleam Eyes turned around, irritated and smashed the area with its tail. Asuna had barely dodged the blow, but was still knocked down by the shockwave.

"Asuna! Get back!" Kirito roared, Vorpal strike ready to intercept the fist of The Gleam Eyes. His dark sword cut into the arm of the monster, dealing a significant amount of damage to him before being blown away as well.

However, Kirito was not deterred at all from the attack; he back flipped onto his feet and charged again. Meanwhile, Klein and our guild focused on getting the Army out of the room.

"Klein, A little help here!?" Kirito shouted at the red samurai while the rest of the members held up an Army Member. I saw him nod at me before he went in to help. Seeing as I had nothing to do, I followed suit.

Asuna's life was at seventy-five percent from one attack while Kirito had already reached the yellow zone from multiple engagements. At this rate, one of our strongest players would die…

"Kirito, switch with us!" I yelled after I caught up with Klein. Kirito turned his head towards us and bowed his head, using Rage Spike to get out of the way.

"Give me ten seconds!" he commanded as he opened up his skill menu. Don't tell me…

"You're going to use it!?" I shouted at him as if he was crazy. Wait, he was crazy. We still haven't figured out who else has it.

"I don't have a choice!" He roared back.

I gritted my teeth as Klein exploited the opening as much as possible. The Gleam Eye's moved his serpent tail to bite Klein had I not stabbed it at the eyes. Beowulf went ahead to pin it down at my command, preventing the boss monster from moving around. Enraged, he swung the Zanbato in an arc, blowing all three of us away from him. Kirito was done by then, and swapped with us.

In one single blow, my health has decrease by a fifth even though it missed. Klein probably suffered less as well, but the force of the attack left us dizzy from tumbling so much. Coordination was impossible with this kind of perception.

Kirito blurred out of my vision as he swung his blades faster and faster, hitting The Gleam Eyes about ten times with each sword before he received a stunning blow. He was using his unique skill, Dual Blade to speed himself faster and faster with the attacks, going to about twenty-four hits on it before dodging its retaliation. With its mobility gone, the monster could only swing it blade vainly as Kirito rained blows on the monster. Within two minutes, Kirito had decimated all three of The Gleam Eye's life bars, and was halfway done with the forth.

My dizziness was gone when both Kirito and the boss stopped at the same time. Both of Kirito's blades had impaled into its chest whereas the Zanbato had crashed onto Kirito's head from my view. My eyes widen in shock.

The blue demon gave a roar in defeat, its body breaking into fragments. The Zanbato collided onto the fall, showing that Kirito was not hit by it at all, before shattering with its user.

"It's… over…?" Kirito gave a bare whisper before collapsing.

I tensed up, secretly hoping that he would not shatter, his life was barely visible and I thought he had died. When I saw him lying down on the floor for a while, I pulled out a potion and went forward to heal him.

"Kirito-kun…" Asuna whimpered, also running forward.

Both of us reached the Black Swordsman at the same time, I immediately open up the potion and downed the liquid into Kirito's throat, watching the red life bar expanded slowly.

"Kirito-kun, wake up… Kirito-kun!" Asuna tried to wake him up while I used potion after point to get his life points safely to yellow. Kirito only stirred after I started pouring the third potion down his throat, and started coughing violently.

"Hrack—"Kirito coughed a couple of times before continuing.

"Owww…"

"You idiot… Why!?" Asuna cried into his arms as he tried to console her. My presence forgotten, I walked back to Klein.

"Are you okay?" I nervously asked. I wouldn't want him to die. Klein merely gave a stupid grin and said.

"I'm okay…" Then his face shifted to sorrow and continued, "Eight people gone just like that…"

"It's been so long since someone died in a boss fight…" Asuna wept.

"You could call it a fight at all… most like a massacre…" I sighed. Like before, those players were nameless to all of us, except for Corbatz. More than ten seconds had already passed since their death.

"Corbatz, you idiot… You can't do anything if you're dead…" Kirito spat, tears flowing from his eyes. Klein turned his head to Kirito and asked about the skill he was using earlier.

"Ah, Monica, go ahead of us, alright? You don't want to hear me repeat myself, anyway." He stated to me. Both Asuna and Klein stared at me venomously, still not believing that Kirito also had a unique skill. I just nod my head and replied.

"See you later…"

I started walking up the stairs, Beowulf and his partners behind me.

* * *

**28****th**** October 2024, Aincrad 50****th**** floor, Agil's shop.**

"I'm going to move… To some super rural floor… or some village where they'll never be able to find me…" I heard Kirito complained in between my laughter.

Today's edition of the newspaper featured Kirito in all his glory of defeating The Gleam Eyes. When I say glory, I meant extreme exaggerated version of him defeating the boss. One of the claimed that the gleam eyes charmed the Army Members to attack Kirito, another stated that Kirito had defeated the boss with only fifty hits, a far cry from the original amount of hits. They had also found out where Kirito had been living, prompting him to hide somewhere else. Unfortunately for him, someone had seen him in Agil's shop, causing a large crowd to gather outside Agil's closed stall.

"Stop laughing already!" Kirito whined.

"Hey, don't be like that… It's good to become famous for once in your life. Why not host a presentation? I'll take care of the tickets and venue—"

"—No way!" I hear him cried in horror and threw his mug at Agil. The mug glowed blue halfway in motion and smashed into the wall five centimeters away from Agil's face. I glanced at Agil's terror-stricken face and laughed absurdly at it.

"Oi… Oi… Are you trying to kill me here!?" Agil demanded. There was a short silence save for my laughter. Kirito probably gave a gesture of apology.

"What about you, Monica? When are you going to reveal your own unique skill?" Kirito questioned me. I merely shook my head and replied.

"No plans yet, and probably not ever!" I then stuck out my tongue at Kirito, who gave a frustrated cry.

The next few moments was spend with me reading the absurd stories of Kirito's feat, causing both me and Agil to laugh at Kirito's expense. Pretty soon, the door crashed open to reveal a pale Asuna.

"Hey Asuna…" Kirito called her, stopping midway when he saw the look on Asuna's face.

"What should we do…? Kirito-kun…" tears slowly gather around her eyelids, scaring all three of us.

"The guild leader… wants to speak… with you…"

* * *

**A/N: And stoppu! Thanks for reading this chapter, please leave a review for my enjoyment in return! I'm kinda upset that no one realized that I had added 'The Beater' as Kirito's title until now. There's no indication that Kirito is a beater in this Fanfic, so now it's gone.**


	14. A hair breath from Death

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. On the other hand, this story, any character not mentioned in the novel and some systems in the game are mine!**

**Monica's stats (6/11/2024)**

Level: 90

Strength: 90

Agility: 180

Health/Base: 16 484 /2550hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv912, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv899, Familiar Recovery Lv895, Night Vision Mastered, Acrobatics Mastered, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv611, Sprint Mastered, Musical Instrument Lv404, Parry Lv342, Delay Lv118(Unique Skill) Beast Master Mastered

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Fenrir's Leather Tunic+8 (6D, 2Q): Strength+50 (1000+300hp) Agility +40(80hp), No speed reduction. Durability: 1600+300, HP+5500. 13/25 upgrades remaining.

Skeletal Bracers +4 (3D, 1Q): Strength +37 (740+150hp) Agility +22 (44hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 800+150. Reflects 70% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+3500. 24/30 upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Devil's Touch (Katar) +24 (16S, 15D, 2Q): 750-770+160dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+750. 24/60 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 13: A hair's breath from Death**

* * *

**6****th**** November 2024, Aincrad 75****th**** floor, Collinia Teleport gates.**

Kirito attacks in multiple directions, making it harder for Heathcliff to defend. A slight mistake on Heathcliff's part allows Kirito to strike directly at his head, which was immediately covered up in less than a second.

How?

I shifted the playback on the mirage sphere a second back and starting pushing the play-slash-pause button rapidly, allowing the video to shift several frames before stopping on the second push. The mirage sphere allows one to save information into an item, but it's mostly used to record videos. There are some players who could generate a complete map with information using the mirage sphere, which I do not belong part of. Not like I was really interested in the first place…

However, the duel between Kirito and Heathcliff was recorded on my mirage sphere, initially since it was a big event. That battle had cause an unpleasant feeling in my head for the past month or so, and every time I replayed the last few moments of the battle, I started to see stranger things on it.

My initial thought on Heathcliff was that he was a beta-tester, since he constantly surprised us with his suggestions, and most of them helped us speed up the floor clearing faster. But it continued on after the tenth floor, where no beta-tester knew of what to come. Even though he says he was lucky, I do not believe him. How can someone be lucky so many times?

My second thought on him was that he might be an employee of Argus, like Enzo was. This is supported by the fact that Heathcliff could always escape a boss battle with more than fifty percent of his health intact. The first strike duel can also be won by reducing the opponent's life by half, which was what almost happened. The shock on his face in the last second of the battle, along with the aftermath was suspicious, but could be explained with him scared of losing his title as the strongest. Kirito claims that Heathcliff is several levels higher than him, and might have lost face if defeated like so. With someone like Kirito defeating him, he might have been overthrown in the KK.

"Oi, Monica… Are you okay?" A teenage boy's voice sounded in front of me, snapping out of my thoughts. I stared at The Twin Blade Swordsman. When did he get here?

"Monica?"

"Ah! Just lost in my thoughts…"

"It's nice to see you focusing on thinking as much as possible, but in the boss fight, please relieve your stress on the boss." He reprimanded me.

"What?" I gaped at him, why does he want me to do something like that?

"Oh, we don't know anything about the boss, so maybe you can starting doing that once it's last life bar." He mused for a moment before giving me a smile.

What's going on? I started to wonder why he wanted me to rage on a boss. What boss?

Oh… Right… The seventy-fifth floor boss… That's why we were here.

"Hey, check it out, Kirito! Monica had recorded your battle with Heathcliff! Show him!" Klein suddenly blurted out. I sighed and started replaying the scene, Kirito watching intently.

It showed the same thing: The opponents exchanging simply blows on each other, the start of the real duel, the climax and the epilogue. Kirito gaped when he saw Heathcliff's shield moving faster than the eye to block Kirito's final attack.

"Tha—that was…" Kirito seem to be stumped for words.

"It was moving faster than the eye; no human could accomplish that with a shield." I stated with a sigh. That part was probably a key part on figuring out what happened. If Heathcliff was a Game Master, it would be understandable, but the only Game Master was Kayaba Akihiko, the self-proclaimed god of Aincrad.

"The easiest theory here was that Kayaba Akihiko was Heathcliff, but life is more complicated than that." I concluded after replaying the two second scene in a series of play-pause motion.

"Sometimes, life is simple." Kirito countered, staring at the mirage sphere, "Especially in games."

"It's nothing but a theory, unproven and without evidence." I whispered back.

"Then let's test it out… That's what theories are for, right?" Kirito replied with a smug grin.

"Oi… can't you guys stop talking in whispers?" Klein's head popped up above us, slightly angry.

"Ah, sorry, just talking about some things better left unsaid." Kirito sighed.

"It's something only both of us should do alone." I continued. Klein gave a rather unmanly pout and stated.

"If it's something about Kirito, I can understand; he's that kind of guy. But you shouldn't hide things from me, aren't we dating now!?" Kirito stared at me when he complained about that fact, one eyebrow raised.

"What? I cannot date whomever I like? " I questioned Kirito, who shook his head and replied.

"I never said anything like that, just wondering why you picked someone so unreliable…"

"Oi! You'd just haven't seen my responsible side yet!' Klein cried. I merely laughed and replied.

"He being unreliable is just part of the entertainment I get for being with him, though he'll probably never get rid of his flirtatious nature." I grumbled midway through my speech.

"It's a work in progress!" Klein stated when the last member of our raiding party arrived. Heathcliff stopped somewhere in front of the group and spoke seriously.

"It seems that everybody is here. Thank you all for that. I think that everybody understands our current situation. This will be a hard battle, but I believe that with your strength we will prevail. We shall fight for our freedom from this game!"

The other players, which includes Klein, Fuurinkazan, Agil and Asuna gave a cheer of their own as Heathcliff turned to Kirito and addressed him.

"Kirito-kun, I look forward to your efforts. I hope you'll utilize your Dual Blades to the fullest." Kirito stands there, nodding seriously after he finishs. Heathcliff turns to me for a moment, gives me an all knowing look and was about to say something to me before he seem to have thought of something immediately and scanned the rest of the players.

Did he know about my own unique skill? That look was calm and confident, giving me unsaid expectations. If he did, it reinforces my suspicion of Heathcliff being Kayaba. Kayaba as a god would know everything about our unique skills, including the last one from mastering Beastmaster.

Call of the Wild, a skill that takes control of all monsters within fifty yards of my character. It reduces the beast's life points by thirty percent and takes away twenty percent of my own life. The beasts would be under my control for ten minutes, a small fraction of a floor boss fight. This skill allows me to absorb damage for a like a tank fighter due to Spiritual Link. For a boss fight, it may be essential to prevent players from dying, but I have been hiding the skill for so long like Kirito, I'm afraid of players losing trust before the boss battle.

"Its fine, better late than never, am I right?" Kirito whispered to me. I nervously swallowed and nodded.

"Then, we shall start. I will open a corridor that leads directly to the area in front of the boss room. Please do one final check that no crystals are on you now."

I patted on the hip pouches that now contained potions instead of the usual health crystals. The area was hypothesized as an anti-crystal field, meaning only potions would work in the room. As everyone gave a nervous nod, Heathcliff spun around and activated the crystal.

Each party went in group by group, with the Fuurinkazan entering last. The feeling of being pulled by an unknown force was nerve-wracking as with all teleportation devices.

The labyrinth of the seventy-fifth floor was the same as the previous four floors; navy blue marble floor, demonic red hills and cliffs and temperatures that felt like the field at the fifty-fifth floor, cold and damp.

Kayaba must think that hell is cold enough to burn, instead of the typical fiery environment.

"Somehow… I have a bad feeling…" Asuna's voice echoed from the other side of the room. I started having second thoughts about using my latest skill.

_Better late than never, am I right?_

I sighed and silently pleaded for my frost wolves to activate the skill. This skill is typically by chance since both the player and all his familiars need to use the skill at the same time. The pack of wolves perked up, stood up straight, and gave a loud howl. Many of the players turned around, panicking about whether the monsters have heard us. I took in a deep breath and position myself in the stance that the skill came with.

Sword skills typically gave a starting stance for new users. As the player progresses, he would no longer need to assume the starting stance, instead capturing the motion with only his arm. Call of the Wild would be different; there is no movement, no action. It is voice activated and required the stances to be successful.

My hollow scream echoed throughout the labyrinth, stopping all movement between the players. Almost immediately, I bowed my head at them.

"I'm really sorry!" thirty five eyes stared at me, wide at with fear.

"What are you doing…?" Heathcliff finally asks after a long silence.

"I've been hiding a unique skill from all of you, like Kirito. I've recently mastered it, which gave me a skill to tame all monsters within the vicinity."

"Are you an idiot!? There isn't such a skill!" A Divine Dragon Alliance Member accused me.

"No! It's true! The skill allows me to control the monsters to my will for ten minutes! I only wish to clear the game like you all… But I was scared of being ostracized… I'm really sorry! This is the only skill I can use to help clear this stage!" The tamed monsters are starting to appear around the group, but made no movement to attack the players. The raiding party was shocked when they bowed their head to Heathcliff, who nodded his head.

"From what I've seen, it's valid skill; we'll trust you for now."

"Thank you very much!"

"But please refrain from doing such things without permission first. It's hard to coordinate an attack alone, let alone with another unique skill user."

"I'm sorry about not informing you earlier on, I was deciding on it myself just a few moments ago."

"No harm done I guess…" Kirito sighed from the other side of the room.

"Is everybody ready? We had no information about the boss behavioral patterns, so the KK will be in charge of defending with everyone analyzes the enemies attack patterns."

Silence once again filled the room with everyone nodding their heads. The skeletal mobs seems to be waiting for me to direct them.

"Then… Let's go!" Heathcliff shouted as he pushed open the doors.

All forty-eight of us charged into the field, followed by thirty skeletal monsters and four frost wolves.

Sixth of November, two years after the game has started, and the seventy-fifth floor boss battle have begun.

* * *

**6****th**** November 2024, Aincrad 75****th**** floor, The Reaper's Gates**

Like all the boss battle on the previous floors, the door shut behind us after a minute has passed. The room wouldn't be able to be opened until either the boss or our party died. However, the boss has yet to reveal itself.

Where could it be… Above us? Below us? I scanned the ground for any signs of movement, but there was none.

"Hey—"I started asked whether anyone has spotted it, and Asuna shouted out the location of the Boss.

"Above us!"

Immediately, all of us looked skywards. A giant skeleton of a centipede resided there, moving all its limbs fluidly. It jumped down after a while.

"Scatter!" The players started trying to get out of its ways, stumbling over each other and falling down. The Skull reaper, revealed by the Frost wolves, landed on three players and two skeletons, shattering all of them in one hit.

I gasped at the power of the centipede. With one attack, it could take out three players, we need to be careful not to get hit now.

"This… is impossible…" Asuna forced out. I started trying to find a way to pin the monster down.

Capturing the legs is close to impossible, there are about a hundred legs on the body, the only way would be the tail. I mentally directed all the monsters to pin down the tail and moved in to attack the ribs of the centipede.

I activated the sword skill Fatal Fury, and was about to hit the bone when it lashed out, sending me flying out of the way.

"Monica!" Kirito shouted. The Skull Reaper turned around, eradicating many of the tamed mobs, and posed its scythe at me, ready to snuff the last bit of life on me.

Isn't this what happened to Diabel… I recalled him being thrown into the air below being cut into two by Illfang… I guess… maybe its fate…

Clang!

"Eh!?" I noticed the Worm arcing back in pain, screaming in an extremely distorted voice. Klein and the Fuurinkazan have launched a massive assault at the standing base of The Skull Reaper.

"You're not taking my future wife!" Klein furiously roared as he smash his Katana multiple times into the bone, taking away a small portion of life.

I landed rather badly, taking a small amount of life from my half life. Quickly, I fished out a potion from one of my hip pouches and drank it down, restoring my life points slow to green. I got up to see Klein and his guild being blown away by the Skull Reaper. Heathcliff's team had started to engage the Skull Reaper this time.

"Damn it… we need to do something about the second scythe." Kirito muttered angrily. Asuna flashed him a serious look and replied.

"Let's stop it together!"

"Un!" He grinned and moved to intercept the scythe that was about to hit Heathcliff's flank.

"We'll stop the scythes! Everyone else, attack its sides!"

"Klein! We'll move to stop the tail!" I yelled across.

While Heathcliff, Asuna and Kirito intercepting any attacks within their reach, Klein's team cover the two sides of the tail, doing our best to stop the tail from sending player across the room. After several unsuccessful attempts, Agil's team moved in to assist the defense.

By the seventh minute, only three Demonic Servants remained to help us with the defense. The first life bar of The Skull Reaper had only lost twenty-five percent of its life. I gritted my teeth in anger, about six clearers were already dead from all the attacks, fifteen of them were forced to retreat and recover their life points.

I release a frustrated sigh after the seventieth tail sweep was swept the Fuurinkazan to the opposite side of the room. This would take a very long time to defeat.

* * *

**A/N: I suck at writing boss battles, so I will spare you my pathetic attempts on this extremely difficult to write battle, and let you imagine it yourself.**

**Next chapter should be fighting Heathcliff, which is easier to write, fortunately. =X**

**No reviews this week… =( So Upset…**

**There's like 29 follower and not one of them gave me a single review, WHY!?**

**This week I hope for 6 more reviews to even out that failure!**


	15. Illidan the Betrayer

**Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, I wouldn't be writing this story in the fan fiction section, now would I? Hence, only the story and anything not mentioned in the real novel would be mine. **

**Monica's stats (6/11/2024)**

Level: 90

Strength: 90

Agility: 180

Health/Base: 16 484 /2550hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv912, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv899, Familiar Recovery Lv895, Night Vision Mastered, Acrobatics Mastered, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv611, Sprint Mastered, Musical Instrument Lv404, Parry Lv342, Delay Lv118(Unique Skill) Beast Master Mastered

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Fenrir's Leather Tunic+8 (6D, 2Q): Strength+50 (1000+300hp) Agility +40(80hp), No speed reduction. Durability: 1600+300, HP+5500. 13/25 upgrades remaining.

Skeletal Bracers +4 (3D, 1Q): Strength +37 (740+150hp) Agility +22 (44hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 800+150. Reflects 70% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+3500. 24/30 upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Devil's Touch (Katar) +24 (16S, 15D, 2Q): 750-770+160dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+750. 24/60 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 14: Illidan the Betrayer**

* * *

**6****th**** November 2024, Aincrad 75****th**** floor, Reaper's Gates.**

Compared to the other floors, the seventy fifth floors was very ominous. Navy blue flooring, faded brown walls with white marble pillars holding a candle each, it felt like a person accidentally summoned a monster in this very room. It did not help that the room was filled with cracks from the ceiling to the floor, as if the room itself was about to collapse soon.

Ah… Who was I kidding, there is not magic in this game, Sword Art Online. Instead, we had sword skills, but I would have traded them for magic if possible. Magic would have helped us clear this floor faster. It's hard to believe that a few hours ago, the monster, Skull Reaper had descended on us, decimating three of our players almost immediately. Luckily, the boss was rather big, and we could overwhelm it with sheer numbers. The congratulations tab allowed us to give in to our fatigue, collapsing on the floor without any grace. We were extremely tired, and the teleport gates would open up after an hour anyway. There was no rush…

I laid my head on Klein's legs, enjoying what comfort it could bring. Behind me was Kirito, sitting back to back with Asuna. Agil was on my left; his enormous back planted firming on the floor. In front of us stood Heathcliff, watching over all of us with a serious expression. His gaze seemed firm yet concerned, but if felt as if he was an observer instead of a player, it didn't make sense to me.

We sat there in silence, trying to recover as much exhaustion as possible. Klein caressed my head carefully, as if he was afraid that I wasn't actually there.

"How many… died…?" I finally broke the silence, but there was another short span of silence before a reply came from behind.

"Fourteen… players…" Kirito replied in a shocked voice.

"Impossible…" The muscular man on my left gave a horrified whisper. I myself was speechless. If we had this many casualties each battle, we might only have a single player to fight against the boss unless he or she was willing to wait for the middle level players to catch up.

"Damn it…" Klein cursed, holding my body tightly. Normally I would have pushed him away, but I didn't want him to die at this rate. I returned his embrace, trying to give as much comfort as possible.

The sound of metal being picked up flew into my ear, I shifted my head upwards to see Kirito getting up, Elucidator held tightly.

"Kirito…kun?" Asuna worriedly asked. Kirito made no sound as he dashed towards Heathcliff, sword poised to slash him. Heathcliff turned around and saw him charging towards him. He attempted to lift his shield to defend himself, but it was too late.

Clang! The sound of metal striking metal as the Elucidator was repelled by an unknown force. Said force expanded out to reveal a purple message. My eyes widen in shock, even though it was my theory that said he was Kayaba Akihiko, I really did not expect it to be turn.

"Just like I'd thought…" Kirito finally spoke. Asuna had caught up to him, about to reprimand him when she saw the purple message.

"Immortality by the system!? What's… the meaning of… this…? Guild master…"

Kirito straighten up from his posture, his face not visible from where I was lying down.

"I had my suspicions about the legends, especially during his duel. Monica's theories helped me find out who Heathcliff was. She'd reminded me the simplest psychology that I had forgotten: Nothing is more boring than watching someone else play an RPG game… Isn't that right, Kayaba Akihiko?"

"Leader… is this… true…?" Heathcliff shocked face slowly melted away, replaced by wonder.

"Just for reference, how did you figure it out?" Kirito gave a sound like he was smirking and replied.

"I started suspecting something was off during our duel, and Monica was recording the battle. She'd had also noticed the speedy movement of your shield, and started suspecting about you too. Her first theory was that you were one of the players among us from that simple psychology. Her second theory was why you had created this world, but it really does not matter. Her third and final theory was created when she recorded the battle between us, when she re-watched the battle with more precision. She noticed that the shield was faster than the eye, which was not possible even for lightweight swords."

Heathcliff could barely contain his surprise when he heard my second theory. It was these kinds of thoughts that kept my bloodlust at bay for the past year. He quickly contained himself and directed his question towards me.

"Why did you think I create this world for?"

My throat felt constricted right after he said that; didn't he know his own reason? I swallowed hardly and began speaking.

"First off, you always wanted to create a world similar to Tower of Druaga, a story that was based on climbing a tower. That's why you'd created Aincrad, a castle with a hundred floors. However, you are rather anti-social, resulting in you lack of psychological understanding. Instead, you wanted real people to be your actors, with the fear of death hanging over all of them. This was to recreate the feeling that any mistake would cost a life to be lost." I paused to recover my breath and continued.

"You would play the hero, climbing the towers and overcoming all obstacles, being a hero in a sense. However, you planned to appear only after the New Year began. By then, the first five floors were cleared. There was another person who had been seen as the hero, the Black Swordsman, Kirito." Kirito fidgeted on hearing his name, which every looked at.

"Now, instead of playing the role of the hero, you decided on playing the role of a rival, whom Kirito strives to beat. Again, it didn't work, because even though other saw you as a role model, Kirito did not consider you as his rival, instead he saw you as his comrade. You'd probably noticed it since he was friendly with the KK, which threw you off. Now you decided to play the role of the traitor, the one who wished to be the strongest, and looked at the Hero as a useless fool, since everyone was looking up to you."

"I see… It seems quite accurate, even being the strongest player who wanted to be even stronger… I was pretty surprise that your theory was this accurate yet you did not do anything." Heathcliff gave me an eerie smile as he spoke.

_Kill…_

"As I'd said, this was all speculation; I myself did not think it was true. Only Kirito did. The last part I had only thought up." I explained as I got up, Klein behind me.

Kayaba Akihiko turned towards Kirito, gave a sigh and told him he did not expected to be exposed so early, and was about to await them at the hundredth floor.

"How dare you… to take our loyalty and hopes… and… and crush them like so!" A KK member screamed as he tried to lop off Kayaba's head. The former guild master swiftly prevented that by opening up a menu and paralysis all of us except for me and Kirito. Kirito crouched near Asuna, cradling her body delicately. While I moved in front of him.

"What are going to do? Kill us all to hide to truth!?" Kirito roared as he moved his other hand to grab the Dark Repulsor. The silver-hair knight gave a sad smile in shook his head.

_Destroy…_

"The situation has gotten to this point… the same point I had planned for the ninety-fifth floor. Rather than that, I will move my schedule forward and wait for your arrival in the Scarlet Jade Castle on the top floor. It's a shame I have to desert the KK as well as the front line players; I should have tutored them to the point where the ninetieth floor mobs could be defeated by them with more ease. But I believe Kirito would be able to handle that. As the one of the unique skill holders, I'd expect you to fight me on the top floor, but I believe everyone here wants a piece of me. So before that… Teleport Monster ID (7031102)" He spoke and a blue light revealed a dark elf similar to Prysm, silver hair, sapphire eyes and grey skin. She was clad in an emerald armor similar to Kayaba's, hiding her figure, and held a thin, silver spear in her hands. Her face was rather rough with two red triangles pointing downwards below her eyes.

"Yes, milord?" She spoke with a firm and smooth voice. Kayaba merely gave a nod of acknowledgement to her before facing the two of us again.

"Since both of you had figured out my true identity, I will reward you with an opportunity: We can have a two-on-two battle here, the system would be released when this floor was cleared. Of course, I will negate my immortality status. If Sinestra and I were to be defeated in that duel, the game will be cleared immediately, and all the players will be able to log out. What do you think?"

"No, Kirito-kun…! He's trying to get rid of you first! Right now… Right now… you have to back down!" Asuna screamed at her spouse. He seemed conflicted on what to do, listen to his wife, or his instincts. I was thinking whether I should help him or let someone else do it. I held in the urge to rush at him to rip him apart like the murderer he was.

_Strangle…_

If Kirito accepted the duel, I would let the person who knows him the best to assist him, namely Asuna herself...

The black swordsman seems to be shifting his eyes between me and Asuna, trying to decide what to do. Finally he moved his head downwards, and muttered.

"You bastard… Let's settle this…" He moved to draw out both weapons, left his party and invited me to his. It would make sense that for a two-on-two battle, both of us need to be in a party. But… his decision had forced me to decline his invitation.

"Monica… why…?" Kirito uttered. I faced Heathcliff and announced.

"I will not participate in this duel…" Heathcliff seemed to be taken off guard from my statement, but I continued.

_Why…?_

"Instead, Asuna will join the team battle… that is the best decision I can make with this."

"Monica-san…" Asuna's eyes widen when I finished that sentence.

"It seems that the Beast master was a wild card until the end…" Heathcliff commented on my decision. He then turned to Asuna and asked if she wants to end the game. Asuna face went from shock to determination.

"I will!"

"I see…" Kirito gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Let's clear the game together, Asuna."

"No! Don't do it Asuna!" Agil shouted at Asuna.

"Kirito! You mustn't!" Klein screamed at him. Kirito turned towards him, gave him a sad smile and said.

"Klein. That time... I'm really sorry... about leaving you. I've always regretted it."

At the same time, Asuna turned to Agil and gave a pat on his head.

"Agil, thank you for supporting the warrior class players up till now... Kirito told me that you spent most of the money you had earned to help the players on the middle floors. I'm really sorry about this; let's meet up in the real world soon." Agil's eyes widen when he heard Asuna said that.

"What… do you mean?" Agil questioned.

"I'm not planning to die here, and I don't believe Kirito is, either." Asuna gave a smile at him before taking position behind Kirito, rapier drawn. The duel notice began between the two teams, counting down from sixty seconds.

"Good luck, Kirito, Asuna." I whispered to them as they charged towards Heathcliff and Sinestra.

_Kill…_

* * *

Asuna attacked first, being the faster of the duo. Multiple Linear bombarding on Heathcliff's shield. Sinestra countered with a horizontal from her right, allowing Kirito to engage Heathcliff. He recklessly pushed Heathcliff back with both of his swords, not landing an attack, but not allowing him to attack either. As each of his attacks were negated by Kayaba's shield, Kirito got increasingly nervous. Was Kayaba being defensive because he could actually counter attack whenever he wanted to? Or did he believe he could survive a direct hit?

"Stay calm Kirito!" Monica's shouted over to Kirito, snapping it out of his fear.

That's right… Asuna's backing me up… I just need to delay him until Sinestra is defeated. He reminded himself.

Asuna on the other hand, was having a hard time comprehending Sinestra's action. She seemed to have an extensive amount of knowledge on all her attack, intercepting all her attacks with her spear. She jumped back to wait for Sinestra's actions after her last barrage. To her surprise, the dark elf pulled out a long arrow from her quiver, notching it on her spear.

What is she doing!? Her mind tells her to dodge it, but she moved forward to prevent Sinestra from firing that arrow, the spear bent from the tension, the dark elf released her hold on the arrow, letting it fly towards Asuna's face. Ducking under it at the last moment, she ignored the shockwave and began another barrage of Linear on her.

Sinestra calmly twirled her spear to deflect the first attack, throwing The Flash's balance off, before spinning around to stab the girl's back. The spear narrowly missed her back; Asuna twisted her body at the last moment to defend herself. Using her momentum, she planted her feet firmly onto the dark elf's back and pushed Sinestra back. The two female fighters stopped their advance on each other, trying to analyze their next move.

Meanwhile, Kirito's barrage hasn't let up yet, Heathcliff has started panicking from the unrelenting attacks. A couple of attacks had managed to land on each opponent, and both their life in the red zone. Risking a hit, Heathcliff used his shield to repel the last attack of Kirito's, sending him backwards for a moment, but that small moment was enough for Heathcliff to counter attack. Kirito suddenly found himself in the path of Heathcliff's Vertical. Keeping calm, he barely dodged that attack and posed his sword to decapitate his head, had Heathcliff's shield not been in the way. Both combatants retreated from the bout, giving each other time to recover.

Asuna had figured out several factors about Sinestra, she was pretty much useless without her spear. Disarming her was hard, and the dark elf had multiple spears. Knocking another of her many spears away from her, Asuna decided to risk a gamble, Rapier moving in for a Linear straight to Sinestra's chest. Her previous skill, Star Splash, had dealt enough force on Sinestra to prevent her from dodging. The Rapier penetrated the dark elf's heart, reducing the last amount of life she had. Asuna then moved to help Kirito against Heathcliff.

He'll need every help he can get, she thought to herself, Linear charged and holding.

She entered the duel in the third round, switching with Kirito and intercepting Heathcliff's sword from striking Kirito's body. Kirito took advantage of the time given to him to continue the attack. This resulted in Heathcliff being pushed back towards to wall from the sheer force of the Sword Skills. At that rate, Heathcliff wouldn't be able to dodge once backed into the wall, or that was what the front line clearers expected. Asuna's rapier collided violently against Heathcliff's Liberator suddenly, the long sword slicing through the light blue rapier. The Liberator did not stop there, moving towards the chest of the sub-commander.

At the last moment, Kirito pushed her aside, both swords posed for Double Circular. The three swords hit their targets, depleting the last of Kirito's life and bringing Heathcliff's one to a fragment.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna screamed, Kayaba was also shocked at the sacrifice that the 'hero' had made. There was silence as the Black Swordsman started glowing.

"This… This is a joke…right? Tell me… Kirito… Tell me it isn't true!" Asuna continued with that same horrified voice, hugging him tightly as pieces of his avatar started breaking away. She tried to hold in her tears, still not believing what had happened. Kirito's mouth parted to pass on his final message.

"Sorry… Goodbye…"

His body then exploded in her arms, dark blue polygons floating away despite Asuna's attempts to gather them back.

Her mind tells her not to be surprise, but her heart refuses to believe his gone. All her emotions gathered into scream.

"KIRITO-KUN!"

* * *

**A/N: Le me feels bad for giving cliff hanger. Kirito ends up dying instead of Asuna. What do you think will happen next?**

**Is it just me? Or am I getting lesser and lesser reviews? Why? D=**


	16. Alpha and Omega

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online or their characters, and I'm pretty sure you know it. What I own is the story and the characters not mentioned in this story.**

**Monica's stats (6/11/2024)**

Level: 90

Strength: 90

Agility: 180

Health/Base: 16 484 /2550hp

Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv912, Battle Healing Mastered (700hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv899, Familiar Recovery Lv895, Night Vision Mastered, Acrobatics Mastered, Heavy Metal Equipment Lv611, Sprint Mastered, Musical Instrument Lv404, Parry Lv342, Delay Lv118(Unique Skill) Beast Master Mastered

Equipment:

Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction

Fenrir's Leather Tunic+8 (6D, 2Q): Strength+50 (1000+300hp) Agility +40(80hp), No speed reduction. Durability: 1600+300, HP+5500. 13/25 upgrades remaining.

Skeletal Bracers +4 (3D, 1Q): Strength +37 (740+150hp) Agility +22 (44hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 800+150. Reflects 70% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+3500. 24/30 upgrades remaining

Dragonian Shin guards +13 (9D, 4Q): Strength +20 (400+450hp), reduces speed by 6-4%. Durability: 550+450. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on this equipment, HP+1600. No upgrades remaining

Devil's Touch (Katar) +24 (16S, 15D, 2Q): 750-770+160dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+750. 24/60 Upgrades Remaining

Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3

**Chapter 15: Alfa and Omega**

**6****th**** November 2024, Aincrad 75****th**** floor, Reaper's Gates**

My eyes widened as I saw Kirito faded into polygons. This was not happening, it wasn't happening!

Ah, the stone… the stone!

"Klein, pass me the stone!" I screamed at Klein, whose face turned grim.

"I don't have it anymore."

"What do you mean by that!? I haven't seen you use it at all!"

"It was used on you!" He shouted out, to my shock. I died?

"I don't want to lose you…" He sobbed as both his hands pulled me into a hug, my mind was blank.

When did I die? Just recently? Why did I have no memory of it?

"I used it before you burst into polygons… The skull reaper took away your life without you realizing it… I couldn't… couldn't let it happen… No girl was so kind to me…" He continued.

Slowly, I embraced to hug. With the stone gone, there's no way for Kirito to come back now. Asuna has to finish the duel…

_Kill… him…_

Small movements were only available when paralyzed, which prevented all of us from charging at Kayaba straight on. I gave a concerned look at Asuna. She does not seem to be affected lightly by his death.

Her rapier gone, she grabbed the Elucidator hard, and charged at Kayaba, venting her anger completely on the traitor. The attacks were weak and were quickly blocked by him, since she was not used to the weight of the weapon. Kayaba sighed as Asuna tried to scratch him.

"To think that the hero would not stand against me in the final battle… How depressing…"

"Shut up…" I hear Asuna muttered,

"It sure was unexpected, that the one I select as the hero was felled by me…"

"Shut up…"

"I guess these kinds of things cannot be predicted…" Kayaba concluded as he raised his weapon to finish Asuna.

"I said SHUT UP!" Asuna screeched as she recklessly hammered on the impenetrable shield. Her last swing missed completely and Kayaba's Liberation went through her stomach.

Time seemed to slow for that moment, I watched with horrified eyes as Asuna was caught off guard by the attack.

No… not her too!

_Kill…him…_

I won't let her die! I mentally yelled at myself and tried to stand unsuccessfully.

_What are you doing?_

Isn't it obvious! I'm going to kill that bastard who trapped us here for two years!

_How would you do it? You're paralyzed, aren't you?_

I don't care…

_Paralysis would mean you cannot make large movements, so how are you going to do it?_

I don't know, and I don't care, I will kill…

_I see…_

So help me, I will end this here for my friends!

_Kill, right? Let's do it._

Glad you see it my way.

_Let's go all out…_

**Third person POV**

The victory message popped out as Asuna quickly burst into cyan polygons in front of Kayaba. What a pity, Kayaba sighed; they were the one with the most potential to defeat me.

Behind him, Klein watched fascinated as Monica stood up easily, as if she wasn't paralyzed.

"Monica? What are you doing?" Klein asked in surprise.

"Shut up…" Was her reply. Klein's shock went up by a notch; he has never heard someone say that with so much hatred other than PKers.

"Calm down, Monica."

"Shut up… I'm going for it…" She demanded as she dashed straight for Heathcliff, Devil's Touch drawn.

Agil and Klein watched her go, too surprised to say anything.

"We could do that?" Klein finally asks when he recovered from the shock.

**Kayaba's POV**

That settle's the battle, I sighed as I brought out the system command to teleport me to the hundredth floor.

"System command, Teleport to Scar—"I was rudely interrupted by a kick from the back, all of my recovered life was taken away from that attack.

Who hit me? I turned around in surprise. Standing before me was the beast master, but something was very different from her. She no longer held the look of a strategist, but of an avenger. Her eyes were emerald still, but it was a dull green, mixed with red? It looks like a dirtied green. What surprised me was that she was standing straight despite paralysis.

"What the—" Was all I managed to utter out when she attacked again. With my health in the red, I focused all my efforts on defending myself. The woman attacked with no pattern, aiming at my head in one attack and going for my legs on the next. Sometimes, she activates a sword skill, forcing me to dodge. But when I tried to counterattack during the freeze duration, she merely dodged it like she wasn't frozen.

What was going on? I am pretty sure if you're paralyzed, you cannot make fast movements or it would hamper your movement, yet the beast master was moving normally, as if she wasn't. It was as if the system wasn't affecting her anymore.

I need to stop her first, I decided as I gave a thrust to her position, she barely dodged it, using her Katar to keep it from hitting her. Seeing a chance, I pushed for the Liberation to slash at her body.

We locked our weapons for an extremely long time, with her moving towards me slowly. It was getting harder for me to hold my position there. At this rate, I'll need to retreat and rethink my strategy.

I broke away from the lock, forcing her off balance, and jumped backwards, ready to strike her falling form. But where was she, I remember seeing her fall onto the floor, but her body had disappeared. I spun around, trying to get her position when I was suddenly brought down by a lunge from the side. Monica had discarded her weapon for no apparently reason, and pinned my form down with her four limbs. Liberator and Guardian were out of my hands, so winner would be decided by reaction.

"What are you planning to do? You can't kill me, but I can use system command to get out of your grip." I smugly replied to her feral face.

Feral? Why is her face feral? I need to get out of here.

I started to system teleport when I noticed her teeth glowing a dark blue hue. Feral Bite? That was coded for NPC mobs only, why is she able to do it.

Her teeth sunk down on my throat, and the last of my remaining Health were depleted.

What had just happened? What was that anomaly? The game was supposed to be perfect, so what did I miss?

My avatar shattered while I tried to make sense of what happened.

Maybe… just maybe… could it be?

The purple message popped out as I concluded that 'that' was a possibility.

You are dead

**Third person POV**

Kayaba Akihiko's body shattered as a loud female voice echoed.

"On the 6th of November, 2024, the game has been cleared. I repeat, the game has been cleared. Commencing log out phase, ETA five minutes."

The rest of the clearers watched silently as the enraged girl stood up soundlessly, observing the players like a predator. Settling on Klein, the woman's smile widened as she made her way towards the Red Samurai.

"Monica, what are you doing?" Klein warily asked. Paralysis was over at that point, so he drew his Katana. Many of the clearers gaped when he did so; it was a known fact that the two of them were dating each other.

"More… I want more… you'd did want to…" Monica grinned before pouncing on the samurai, both her fist glowing towards him. Klein dodged the attack, keeping his Karakurenai between the couple.

Klein observed her figure, trying to figure out what was wrong with his girlfriend. The eyes were not bright; they were also quite small compared to before. Her grin seemed to be stuck on her face as she charged at him again.

As they continued the fight with Klein defending, Monica gave an eerie laughter as she continued to hack away at her boyfriend. The Fuurinkazan held a nervous expression, wanting to assist their guild leader but not wanting to hurt his girl in the process.

"What's wrong with you!? Stop it!" Klein yelled at her, which she replied with another laugh.

"Why are you resisting…? I only want to help…" She commented as Klein's heath reached yellow.

"Help me? By killing me? That's completely wrong!" He accused.

"Kill you? Oh… no, I'm trying to help you escape… If you die here… you escape… don't you know?" She spoke each phase between her attacks.

Klein reached the Fuurinkazan, still unsure of what happened.

"Are you crazy?" He finally asks.

"Four minutes until log off phase is completed" The female voice echoed.

"Crazy? Hm… I don't know…" The now-crazed girl murmured when they locked blades, though it was more of Karakurenai keeping her sword skills on her fist from reaching him.

"Don't worry… you don't need to help me escape… We're logging of in four minutes." The red samurai tried to plea with her,

"And how would you know?" She shot back with another creepy laugh.

"You've never logged off from this game before…"

"I…" Klein faltered from those words. She was right in a sense, are they really logging off?

"You see my point? I know this way is possible." Monica darkly replied.

"Three minutes until log off phase."

Klein thought for a moment before replying.

"No, your way guarantees death. I'd rather trust the log off phase."

"I see…" Monica smirked before looking for another member. Spotting a Knight of Blood member, she chased after the knight.

"What should we do, Klein?" Kunimittz worriedly asked.

"I think she's snapped." Dale agreed.

"We'll restrain her… No weapons…" Klein finally spoke after hearing his' member's opinion.

"Roger, guild leader." The ten other members nodded as they moved towards Monica, who had destroyed the sword that the member of Knight of Blood Oath was using.

"Two minutes."

The Fuurinkazan managed to get a jump of Monica, moving to restrain her limbs.

"What— let me go!" Monica screamed, attempting to free herself from the eleven.

"Not until the countdown is over!" Klein screamed.

"Sixty seconds." The voice announced as Monica freed her right arm from Harry One.

"Damn you, Let go!" She yelled while her right arm pounded mercilessly on Dale who was restraining her left arm with Morikawa.

"Thirty seconds." The countdown continued as Monica finally freed her left arm.

"Twenty."

The struggle continued in the favor of Monica.

"Ten." Monica finally frees herself from the Fuurinkazan, she attempts to kill the nearest clearer, a Divine Dragon Alliance Member.

"Five." Monica runs towards the DDA member, who had turned tail and tried to elude her.

"Four."

"Three."

"Two." Monica's speed allowed her to catch up on the man; she pounced on the guy, fist glowing dark blue as it swings in the system's determined path.

"One." The Divine Dragon Alliance Member trips over himself when he turned around, getting scratched by the former beast master.

"Executing log out phrase." The system voice finally announced.

Then everything when white.

**A/N: Here's the final chapter of the story. I'm not sure if I want to start uploading the sequel afterwards. I'm taking a break from all the writing to relax for a while. **

**Now, should I end this with an epilogue? And if I do, whose point of view should I pick? I could go with Kirito's POV at the end of Aincrad or I could go with Klein's POV after he logs out.**


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